Yeah I have a friend that recently quit working on the NBN, not one of the contractors in the company that he worked for was confident that it would hit its very modest goals. The thing is just hacked together with technical band aids placed everywhere and parts of the roll out that they still have no idea how they are going to do it. On the otherhand we have a more expensive but technically simpler system which will be much faster, much easier to maintain, and much more reliable. You spend the money now to save money in the future.
The Australian government is calling the NBN a success because they have 30% signup, and NZ has less than 10% but they forget that we have VDSL and fibre to the node so already have fast enough internet for most people. NBN in some cases is just putting in place what we have had for years.
Australia is going to have to re-do a lot of the work in the near future if they want to be competitive and a good chunk of the work that has gone on now will be wasted.
As much as I hate to admit it our government has shown good vision and a willingness to invest in the future of the country whereas in Australia they are not concerned with the country but with lining the pockets of the big telcos at the tax payers expense.