No-one is more optimistic about the cost and timing of the NBN rollout than its chief, Bill Morrow.

Mr Morrow gave a glowing review of the timing and cost of Australia’s largest-ever infrastructure project, when he spoke to reporters on Friday.

Mr Morrow says the project will be complete by 2020 with no blowout in the $49 billion budget.

“The amount of taxpayer equity that is put into NBN is capped at $29.5 billion. The amount of peak funding that we'll use before operating cash flow positive is $49 billion,” Mr Morrow said.

“We're on track with that and I have a high degree of confidence that we'll meet that.

“We now have contracts in place to complete the entire build and this in the first time that we've had that so we've removed most of the uncertainty.”

The NBN boss said when the NBN is completed in 2020, Australia will be a world leader in broadband, a big leap up from its current rank of 48th for global internet speed.

“We're making so much momentum and well on track to be the first continent to have a fully connected universal broadband that has 25 megabits a second or better,” he claimed.

“On the speed, 40 per cent of the nation when we're done will have access to a gigabit per second, and that's better than better than any other nation will be at that year 2020.”

Internet Australia – a lobby for the online community – says that because large parts of the project will rely on copper wire, the system will be redundant almost as soon as it is completed.

“It seems unlikely that the NBN will actually be completed by 2020 but, even if it is, the reliance on copper wires will make it an inferior product compared to the fibre networks being built around the world,” Internet Australia CEO Laurie Patton said.

“While the NBN has 'passed' three million premises only about one million have bothered to sign up.” 

Mr Morrow denied that the Coalition Government’s cheaper, slower, patchwork of NBN technologies would leave it below standard by 2020.

“I don't think we're unique in that sense. You look around the world and it's a multitude of technologies. They have their own multi technology mix just like we're deploying here,” he said.

“The only difference is that we're making sure every home here in the country gets it and doing it at record pace.”

In a speech to the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Mr Morrow will reportedly argue that the NBN is critical to small start-ups emerging in garages and bedrooms around the country.

“Think about it. We'll be able to reach 23, 24 million people right from your bedroom,” he said.

“That's an opportunity they very few people have had and I think we're going to see entrepreneurs reach for the sky and say there's no limit to what I can do with my idea.”