NBN Co expected to unveil strategic review

NBN Co is expected to partially release the text of the 60-day strategic review on Thursday after making some changes following a board meeting yesterday.

NBN Co's head of corporate and commercial Kevin Brown told a Senate Select Committee today that "some additional work" was required before the working draft is finalised and made public. That work was being conducted today.

The working version of the review was provided to Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull on December 2. Following feedback, it was placed before the NBN board on Tuesday of this week for further consideration.

"As a consequence of yesterday's board meeting there is some additional work required on the document," he said.

Calculations and logic were among areas requiring clarification, Brown said.

The document is expected to be finalised at another board meeting to be convened tomorrow, and could be released publicly on the same day, although there has been no formal notification that this is the case.

"The strategic review is yet to be signed off by the NBN Co board," Brown said. "Once approved I understand the government will release a version of it publicly."

He confirmed earlier advice that some of the review would be redacted to protect NBN Co's commercial interests in upcoming negotiations.

"We'll be provided a redacted version, we expect tomorrow after the board finally approves it." 

Brown said that the review had been worked on internally by a dedicated team of 25 people, project managed by outgoing chief commercial officer Tim Ebbeck.

The review also included input from "about 280 workshops" that had been conducted with various NBN Co staff, as well as from external consultants.