Mr. Pat Kidney:

A prospective 300,000 customers disappeared from the network but the developer still had to build through that area. There was a double whammy. The developer had to build at least part of the network, albeit not the actual drop connections, though the 300,000 area but with no revenue arising from the 300,000. To add to the vicious circle, the 300,000 are the customers who would be served first because they are the closest to the exchange. Once premises are passed, there is nothing to stop them being connected and starting to generate revenue, even before the deployment area is complete.