Internet, technology, broadband, computer, email, electronic, fibre optic cable. Pic by Nic Walker.

The people of Brunswick are about to road test the $50 billion national broadband network on Victoria's behalf. Will it be worth it?

THE workmen's trucks have been dubbed ''traffic blockers'' and footpaths have become chequer-boards of old and new concrete, but Brunswick's residents and businesses are preparing to test optical fibre broadband on Victoria's behalf -even if they are not exactly sure how to use it.

There are about 2600 properties in the small test zone between Lygon Street and Sydney Road, and just under half of those have agreed to an optical fibre connection network that will deliver broadband internet at speeds of up to 1 gigabit a second. That's 10 times faster than the fastest broadband commercially available today.

NBN facts.

NBN facts.

Clint Fisher is the owner of the Retreat Hotel on Sydney Road, and he says the main reason he is getting a fibre connection is to replace the ageing copper wires in the 170-year-old pub that he says slow down his ADSL connection.

The optical fibre broadband will make it easier to stream music from the web, Fisher says, but beyond that, it won't have a significant impact on the running of the pub.

''If [free wi-fi] became more economical, then we would provide that, but, to be honest, I don't think it would make much difference to us as a pub and a music venue.''

Fisher's position is similar to that of other residents who spoke to The Age - they know faster internet is better, but they don't know exactly why.

But the Retreat's dodgy wiring does help explain why the broadband project is going to cost $50 billion: over the next eight years, NBN Co, the company the government has set up to build the network, is going to replace Telstra's copper wires with optical fibre in nearly every property and street in Australia.

NBN Co will replace Telstra as the owner and seller of fixed communications, solving the industry's competition impasse of the biggest company competing at a retail level against its wholesale customers and controlling access to its network. The federal government will raise $27 billion to fund the first half of the project by selling bonds on the international credit markets. It is also considering selling infrastructure bonds to Australians and may provide more details in next week's budget.

NBN Co expects to borrow the rest itself once it is earning income and able to repay corporate lenders. According to its business plan, released in November, NBN Co anticipates repaying the government by 2034.

Other countries are building public optical fibre networks, but none is as big or expensive because Australia is unique in respect to its combination of size, population and prosperity.

That something this costly is under way in Brunswick is not really suggested by the appearance of book-sized grey boxes attached to the outside of houses or workers digging up the footpath.

Brunswick resident Kerin says she made a decision not to get a free connection because she wanted to protect the aesthetics of her house, even though this means she, or any future owners of her property, will have to pay for a connection when the copper network is turned off.

''[It is an] informed decision - being a low-tech user and wanting as little as possible on the outside of the house. I do not do downloads and things. It is beyond my needs,'' she says.

The owner of the Kitchen Kultcha cafe on Glenlyon Road, Chris Lytras, has no complaints about the trucks or construction crews and says his building will be added to the network as soon as possible. But the only immediate use he can think of for fibre broadband at a cafe is offering free wireless internet to customers, and he already does this.

Brunswick is also a test site for using Telstra's existing underground pipes to slide cable underground and straight into houses. This is meant to be cheaper, faster and less disruptive than laying new trenches. This option is supposed to save $1.7 billion in construction, but it costs $13.8 billion to lease Telstra's tunnels.

However, it increases NBN Co's revenue, because Telstra has agreed to decommission its copper network, thereby forcing customers onto the fibre network. Property owners who do not get a free connection in the initial rollout will have to pay NBN Co to revisit their property to install a connection, or rely solely on mobile networks for communications.

The rollout in Brunswick has not been without surprises. Telstra technicians contracted by NBN Co have found asbestos in the concrete lining the pits that hold all telephone cables, and in some cases pits were already full of cabling. The lining had to be replaced with plastic and new pits dug to accommodate more cables.

Altogether, contractors have had to rip up and replace at least 700 square metres of concrete in the test site. NBN Co says costs like this have been factored into the $50 billion national construction cost (including payments to Telstra).

No one knows what condition the rest of Telstra's infrastructure is in around the country, or how much needs to be replaced before it is fit for NBN Co to lease.

It is likely Telstra will be responsible for the cost of preparing tunnels for NBN Co as part of the leasing agreement, which is still under negotiation and remains confidential.

With the rollout in five mainland test sites nearing completion, NBN Co will soon start focusing on the next 19 test sites. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has announced fibre will be rolled out in a further seven sites in Tasmania later this year, adding to three sites already connected and using the fibre.

NBN Co is still working out where to go after that, but the Labor Party has promised the independent MPs who helped it to form government that regional areas will be a priority.

While the rollout is well under way, the project does have its critics - of the cost, the fact the government is building a new monopoly, and NBN Co's deal with Telstra to turn off the phone and internet capabilities of its hybrid fibre cable network, except for Foxtel services, which runs past 2.5 million households.

''What I want to see is really a much more competitive marketplace, and I think creating an NBN that is like the old Postmaster-General's Department - that is, effectively a monopoly - is a very, very bad idea,'' says Michael Porter, national director of research and policy at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

Porter does want to see faster and more reliable broadband spread around Australia, but believes NBN will be duplicating a lot of infrastructure.

He is also concerned that the deal between NBN Co and Telstra to turn off the hybrid cable will shut down a viable market. He is concerned that the commercial deal to decommission hybrid fibre cable and force customers onto NBN Co's fibre will give consumers less choice between different technologies.

Fibre will be the only fixed option by the time the network is complete. Optus also owns cable that runs past roughly the same areas, and is rumoured to be working on a similar deal with NBN Co.

''What we should be doing is commissioning by speed and quality. We should not be commissioning by technology,'' Porter says.

Janelle Brennan, of the Hobart suburb of Midway Point, has been using an NBN fibre connection since August. While she and her two teenage sons mostly use the internet for entertainment at home, Brennan says she could not go back to ADSL (on the copper network).

''It is just incredible - the ability for us to download movies and stuff off [ABC's] iView. It has changed the way we think about television,'' she says.

For $80 a month, the family gets 200 gigabytes of downloads at peak times and 200 gigabytes off-peak. While this costs more than they were paying for the old connection, she says it is worth the price and includes an internet telephone.

Their connection downloads at 100 megabits per second and uploads at 40 megabits per second. ''Video conferencing would be a breeze,'' she says.

Broadband will eventually alter every household in the country - not because everyone will suddenly become data hungry, but because every home or office will get new cabling and plugs.

NBN Co will issue plugs with two points for telephones and four points for internet services. All four plugs could be used for separate internet connections, or spread between television, utilities smart meters and any new inventions.

Households will be able to buy each service from a different provider.

Houses in regional areas will be fitted with a wireless or satellite receiver rather than fibre and will get a constant dedicated supply of at least 12 megabits per second. This is different to commercial wireless networks, which are shared between all users and have fluctuating speeds.

By 2021, every home and business is expected to be using NBN Co's fibre rather than Telstra's copper network.

While Telstra is both a retail and wholesale company, NBN Co will be strictly wholesale. It has promised to offer every wholesale customer the same service at the same price, regardless of size. This is likely to see many new companies entering the internet market.

''The National Broadband Network will transform communications markets in Australia,'' says Ed Willet , commissioner with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says.

''Telstra will remain a large player in communications markets, but it will lose its advantage in monopolising fixed-line infrastructure. Telstra competitors will compete on a level playing field, for the first time buying the same access service in the same way on the same terms as Telstra.''

There are still many other potential hiccups that may be beyond the control of NBN Co or the federal government. For example, Leighton Holdings, the parent company of three construction firms bidding for a billion-dollar contract with NBN Co, was recently forced to raise $757 million after disclosing massive cost blowouts and delays in two public-private partnership projects in Victoria and Brisbane.

These issues, including problems in Leighton's Middle East operations, could make it harder for NBN Co to select it as a long-term construction partner. This narrows its choices. Already NBN Co has suspended its original tender process and is working on a new deal, after accusing bidders of inflating their quotes.

Another hurdle is the lack of skilled technicians and manpower available for the project. Tens of thousands of workers will be needed to dig trenches and install fibre-optic cable.

And then there are state property laws, which require NBN Co to collect written consent from owners before entering a property - a bureaucratic nightmare involving millions of permission slips.

Before the state election, the Brumby government announced it would give NBN Co an exemption to trespass laws, as the Tasmanian government has done, so every property automatically gets a fibre connection. But a spokesman for the Baillieu government told The Age that ''the Victorian government has no plans to change trespass law to accommodate the NBN rollout''.

This could leave the state with some houses connected to fibre, some still on copper, and, when the copper is decommissioned, some with no connection.

Brunswick's network is scheduled to go live before July. It will be the only Victorian NBN site until mid-2012, when the second phase test sites of Bacchus Marsh and South Morang are activated.

Asked whether the whole project can be completed, NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley says:

''You create a big machine and it just replicates. You get a momentum going and you replicate. It is not a one-off - it is not like trying to build a harbour bridge or a Snowy Mountains scheme. We will be doing the same thing over and over again, and we will be getting better and better at it and more efficient at it as we go.''

But unlike the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the NBN is not a project that can be pointed at and said to be ''for crossing water''.

The Labor government is counting on Australians finding ways to use faster broadband that will justify the project's cost and the disruption it causes.

Lucy Battersby is Telecommunications Reporter.