Labor jumps on another NBN leak

The company building the national broadband network has had a secret pilot program for low-cost fibre-to-the premises technology, leaked internal documents reveal.

NBN Co's trial of the technology could cut per-premises construction costs from $1200 to $600, Fairfax Media reports.

"Another day, another leak ... this is an extraordinarily damaging leak for Malcolm Turnbull," Labor's communication spokesman Jason Clare told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

The document reveals the company successfully trialled a multi-technology local fibre network, which uses cutting-edge, thinner optical fibres combined with flexible joints and other improvements.

The technology advance, which allows the system to bypass the ageing Telstra copper wire network from the node to the home, was tested in two Victorian sites over 18 months from July 2014.

Mr Clare said the trials showed that Mr Turnbull had been lying for months about how much it costs to connect to Labor's initial fibre-to-the-premises regime.

"It proves the only reason that Malcolm Turnbull is not connecting millions more Australians to the real NBN is politics," he said.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield dismissed any suggestion the government was misrepresenting the cost of fibre to the premises as it pursues its fibre-to-the-node rollout.

"Any claims this is a secret plan are nonsense," he told Fairfax Media.

A spokesman for NBN Co said time was also an important factor and fibre-to-the-node was proven to be able to be scaled far faster than any other technology.

Mr Clare put the leaks down to good people inside NBN Co being frustrated at having to construct a second-rate network.