Get your act together councils tell NBN Co

Councils involved in first release sites for the National Broadband Network struggled to prepare for the change and recommend hiring project managers to facilitate the roll out a new report has found.

NBN Co head of corporate services, Kevin Brown, said the government-owned business relies heavily on the support and assistance of councils to gather information for network planning and as a conduit to the local community for consultation and the dissemination of information.

The NBN aims to supply fibre broadband connections to 93 per cent of Australian premises with the remaining 7 per cent served by a mix of wireless, mobile and satellite technologies. It is scheduled to cover 13 million premises by 2021 and involve the installation of 181,000 km of optical network cable and 57,000 km of transit fibre.