Overview

In 2013, then opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull pledged to ditch Labor's fibre-to-the-premises national broadband network and replace it with a mix of technologies including upgraded copper wires and pay TV cables.

Now, despite a blowout in the cost of his version of the NBN from $29.5 billion to $56 billion, he insists it is better than what Labor would have delivered.

'A mixed technology model is cheaper and faster and more efficient. That is beyond question,' Turnbull, now prime minister, told parliament last week.

But, according to communications consultant Paul Budde, it's not. He says many in the telecommunications industry are losing confidence in the NBN.