TASMANIANS are being told they might be able to get the top broadband service, something they had originally been promised for free, if they pay extra.

In an interview with the Mercury yesterday, NBNCo chief executive Bill Morrow said the company was working on ways so that individual premises or communities could upgrade to fibre to the premises if they wanted.

“We have a co-funding model that we are putting together to say everyone can jointly pitch in a little bit of money to give them this fibre all the way into their premises,” he said.

Mr Morrow confirmed that not all Tasmanians will be getting the fibre-to-the-premises superfast cable promised before last year’s federal election.

Some homes and businesses have already had fibre-to-premises installed for free.

Mr Morrow said he understood Tasmanians were disappointed with the NBN rollout.

“I completely understand the frustration,” he said.

“It is a terrible thing when somebody makes a promise that is not able to be kept.”

When the national broadband project was announced, Tasmania was promised a “first mover advantage”, with the majority of the rollout ­expected to be delivered to premises as opposed to being delivered to the street.

But Mr Morrow confirmed yesterday fibre to the premises was no longer guaranteed.

“This is going to be a multi-technology mix,” he said.

“Some homes are going to be served by a wireless solution, satellite or fixed wireless, some homes will get fibre to the premises, and some homes will get fibre to the node.”

The NBNCo has said it will announce today a new contract aimed at speeding up the rollout.

Mr Morrow said NBNCo had secured the services of national contractor UCG, which would double its local workforce to connect more homes faster.

He also said there was still no time frame on when the Tasmanian rollout would be completed other than to say it would be completed in line with the national time frame of 2020.

Tasmania had been slated for a late 2015 completion date, giving the state a significant “first mover” advantage over other states.

The new contract is aimed at solving the problem of homes taking months to be connected to the NBN even though the cable already runs down the street — the delay caused by the individual ­houses not having lead-in wires as originally promised.

“The number of homes that we left without those lead-ins was so great and the construction work was far greater than anybody had thought,” Mr Morrow said.

“That left us in a bit of a ­precarious position where ­customers had to wait far too long than what they should have.”