Gillard's diary dictates NBN live date

July has arrived, but the first National Broadband Network (NBN) service is yet to be turned on, despite former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd having nominated this month as the go-live time. According to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, the start of services will be dictated by new Prime Minister Julia Gillard's diary.

Speaking at the launch of a project that will deliver remote rehabilitation therapy using Nintendo's Wii devices via the NBN, Senator Conroy and Mike Quigley, the chief executive officer of the company charged with building the network, NBN Co, answered ZDNet Australia's questions on when the first NBN services would be switched on in Tasmania.

"It'll be in July; early part of July," Quigley said. "So we've got quite a number of service providers now who are connecting customers up, providing a range of services all the way from telephony through to video. There's three or four different service providers doing that as we speak. So it really is in the early part of July."

In July last year, the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had said that the first homes would be connected "come the end of the year". He added that the plan was to turn the services on "come July" of this year.

When Quigley looked to Conroy to provide a more exact date for turning on services, the communications minister said that the "come July" commitment had been "subject to Kevin's diary".

The live date was "now subject to Julia's diary", Conroy continued, referring to Australia's new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

"We will tell you as fast as we've confirmed the date ... but it will be, as Mike said, in the first couple of weeks in July without any problems at all," Conroy said.