It has argued that some households could pay up to $3000 in rewiring costs to take full advantage of the superfast internet service.
As the Prime Minister defended the NBN, vowing that connection of fibre to the house would be free, it emerged the government made a new cash injection into the project despite the fact that it is yet to respond to the implementation study into the $43 billion project.
Documents filed to the corporate regulator reveal the government put a further $350 million into the project on July 21 -- two days after the writs were issued for the election.
Despite the government's insistence that connections to the home would be free, a row continued over the costs of taking full advantage of the network, which will produce speeds of 100 megabits per second.
Ms Gillard clashed with Sydney radio personality Ray Hadley when questioned on whether it would cost between $2000 and $4000 to rewire his house to take full advantage of the NBN.
"You are simply not right to raise this fear of cost for people," the Prime Minister said.
"That is not right, that is not what has happened. It is simply not true."
Ms Gillard said people did not pay a fee to have fibre rolled out to their home but if they wanted to use the fibre they would pay a service provider.
But opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb seized on the clash, accusing the government of deliberately avoiding discussion of "any of these issues so that people will be deceived into believing that this is costless and it's all paid for in their taxes".
The National Electrical and Communications Association confirmed it was likely residents and some businesses would have to pay if they needed new wiring and outlets to take full advantage of the NBN.
Association chief executive James Tinslay said that once the NBN had installed fibre-optic cables, residents would still need to equip their homes with new cables and devices.
"Residents will need to consider what technology they wish to embrace when the NBN reaches their front gate, and it is very likely that many households will need to be retrofitted with new cables, wiring and outlets to access new services."
Mr Tinslay said a standard retrofit could cost up to $3000.
"However, the big unknown at this stage is what the cost will be for getting fibre-optic cables from your front gate into your living room," he said.
Mr Tinslay also raised concerns about the safety of workers installing the NBN, saying there were still no training standards or cost estimates for a scheme to prepare thousands of people for dangerous work near powerlines connecting homes to the fibre-optic network.
"Our main concern is letting government know that there are dangers here and they need to make sure that there are no safety issues along the way, because they will cop it from everybody if they do," Mr Tinslay said.
Some of the major safety concerns included eye injuries caused by tiny glass filaments and high-energy light pulses capable of destroying sight in milliseconds.
Documents filed with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission show the government last month more than doubled its initial $312m equity injection in NBN Co, which is rolling out the network, taking its total to more than $650m.
According to the ASIC records, the share issue was made on July 21, two days after the government entered caretaker mode.
But a spokesperson for NBN Co denied the equity injection was made after the caretaker call, saying the ASIC documents were submitted before writs were issued.
It is expected the extra equity will be used to further the rollout of the NBN in Tasmania and the first release sites on the mainland, and for operational expenditure.
Former Optus senior executive Paul Fletcher, now the Liberal member for Bradfield on Sydney's north shore, said connection to the NBN was a real issue.
"If you're delivering 100mbps to the front door then you will need in many cases to change the internal wiring," he said.
Mr Fletcher said if customers did not upgrade their home wiring they could use wireless technology to connect all the rooms to the network. But he said that would not deliver high-speed internet, video and telemedical services simultaneously to multiple devices throughout the home.
The Coalition has vowed if elected to scrap the NBN and substitute a modest $6.3bn network using existing copper, wireless and HFC cable technology.
But householders wanting to distribute access to the Coalition's pipe would face the same problems as those on the NBN.
The NBN Co is using three towns in Tasmania as a test case for the mainland rollout of its $43bn network.
It is urging residents in the Tasmanian test towns to sign up by the end of the month for free installation of "network termination units" -- the box required to hook a home into the NBN so internet service providers can switch on the 100Mbps broadband services.
About half the households have agreed so far, and it is not known if extra costs will be incurred by those who decide against having the fibre network connected.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NICOLA BERKOVIC, ANDREW COLLEY
The first steps to the Censorship of the Masses,
paid for by the masses,
as NO government is going to wear the costs.
The people are being DUPED that the speeds are for THIER benefit,
forgetting the 'hidden' agenda.
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