Australia: NBN may leave lives at risk in bushfires and floods, experts warn

Regional disaster coordinators fear the Coalition’s cost-cutting decision to run fibre optics to-the-node will result in people being cut off in power outage

By Melissa Davey

Lives may be lost in mass-emergencies including flood, bushfire and cyclone events because the NBN network will be left vulnerable during significant power outages, disaster management experts have warned NBN Co.

Emergency coordinators in disaster-prone regions fear the government’s decision to run fibre optics largely to-the-node instead of to-the-premises in a bid to save money and roll out the NBN faster will leave communities completely cut off in a power outage.

Unlike fibre-to-the-premises, where fibre is connected all the way to the home, fibre-to-the-node means hundreds of properties will remain connected via a traditional copper line from a nearby node.

Each node requires its own power supply, which could be lost if the electricity grid drops out during a disaster such as a flood.

[...]