Hills hurt by 'delivery issues' on Ericsson NBN deal

Hills is working with Ericsson to remediate “delivery related issues” that are raising its costs to connect fixed wireless and Sky Muster users to the NBN.

The company said its first-half 2017 performance had been “impacted by higher costs to service the Ericsson contract.”

“Hills continues to work with Ericsson to address delivery related issues and to bring costs back into line,” the company said.

Hills CEO Davd Lenz said in a statement to iTnews that the issues were "not related to service delivery to the field but relates to our overall costs to service the contract.”

“Hills experienced higher [operating expenditure] related costs than expected to service the contract," he said.

"[We are] looking at how to reduce these costs, working in conjunction with Ericsson.“

Hills is contracted by Ericsson to supply home installation services for NBN Co’s fixed wireless and long-term satellite products.

It had performed around 30,000 fixed wireless installations by early 2015, when it picked up a four-year extension for the contract, which will take it through to at least May 2019.

The next week is likely to be particularly busy for installers working with the Sky Muster service as 10,000 customers still need to be migrated off NBN Co’s interim satellite service, which is switched off at the end of this month.

Update, 12.30pm: Added comments from Hills CEO David Lenz.