Published on the 16/07/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
More than 650,000 Australian premises are now theoretically able to connect to the National Broadband Network, and 210,000 have done so according to a mid-year update from NBN Co…
NBN Co was out in force last week trumpeting its success in exceeding “nearly every major forecast set by the company’s board of directors for the first time”. While it’s a laudable achievement it is worth remembering that under the Abbott Government the company and its board has far less ambitious targets than in the past.
The original plan for the NBN was to deliver fibre to the premises broadband connections for the overwhelming majority of Australians, with speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
The current Government’s NBN goal is to provide at least 25 Mbps broadband access for all Australians by 2016, provided through a mix of satellite, fixed wireless and fixed lines, the latter largely delivered through a fibre-to-the-node network. By 2019 the Government’s stated intention is that at least 90 percent of consumers with access to the fixed line network will have access to broadband speeds of 50 Mbps or more.
According to communications minister Malcolm Turnbull early trials of the fibre-to-the-node technology, undertaken on NSW’s Central coast are delivering 100 Mbps download speeds and 40 Mbps uploads.
Despite an ongoing court battle between NBN Co and Telstra over disputed payments and revised contract negotiations the two organisations have committed to a 1000 node pilot of the fibre-to-the-node network which will provide NBN access to another 200,000 homes.
The trial is intended to test the network design and rollout programme developed by NBN.
Bill Morrow, who was appointed CEO of NBN Co in April this year, said in a recent interview with Australia’s Saturday Paper that: “By the end of 2019, I want to make sure that all homes – and there are about 12.5 million of them – have access to the broadband network we are building. And about eight million are going to connect by the end of 2019.
“That’s going to help us generate over $4 billion in annualised revenue. And we are going to do all of that within the peak equity funding envelope of $29 billion, and we’ll have to get debt on top of that.”
To deliver more transparency with regard to the progress of the network rollout NBN Co now publishes a weekly update on its website.
The Federal Government this week also released its panel of experts review into the National Broadband Network. The report can be accessed here.
