NBN Co announces 200,000 more homes and businesses to become eligible for nbn fibre upgrades, releases Q1 FY22 financial results

NBN Co today revealed the latest list of suburbs and towns where an additional 200,000 homes and businesses are set to benefit from the extension of fibre deeper into communities¹.

The upgrades will enable customers living and working in these premises that are currently served by Fibre to the Node (FTTN) to become eligible for Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) upgrades, on demand, when the customer orders a retail plan from their service provider based on the nbn™ Home Fast, nbn™ Home Superfast or nbn™ Home Ultrafast wholesale speed tier².

NBN Co expects to enable internet retailers to begin taking orders for higher speed tiers from the first eligible customers from March 2022. Customers are invited to register for updates on the nbn website.

Following earlier announcements on the roll out of fibre deeper into communities to pass some 1.4 million premises, today’s announcement takes that total to 1.6 million premises and includes details of additional suburbs and towns in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. The FTTN to FTTP network upgrade program aims to enable up to 2 million premises to access nbn™ Home Ultrafast (FTTP)^1,2, which offers wholesale download speeds of close to 1 Gbps^3,4, on demand².

It is part of the company’s wider $3.5 billion network upgrade program, which aims to make nbn’s highest wholesale speed tiers available^1,2, as demand arises, to around 8 million premises or up to 75 per cent of homes and businesses on the fixed line network by 2023.

The company is also planning to commence similar full fibre upgrades to be made available on demand to eligible customers living or working in premises currently served by Fibre to the Curb (FTTC)².

Most premises served by FTTC can already achieve line speeds that are sufficient to support the nbn™ Home Fast wholesale speed tier. From next year, the company expects to be ready to progressively invite customers living and working in eligible premises currently served by FTTC to order a higher speed nbn™ Home Superfast or nbn™ Home Ultrafast service.

NBN Co’s area selection criteria for the FTTN to FTTP upgrade program is based on areas where the company anticipates strong demand for higher speeds; where it can provide maximum benefit to the most customers; where it can deploy with speed and agility, and where its multi-billion-dollar investment is most likely to spread and multiply economic activity across the nation.

Kathrine Dyer, Chief Operating Officer at NBN Co, said:

“Over the last 12 months we have so far identified the suburbs and towns where 1.6 million premises will benefit from fibre pushed deeper into communities so that more customers can access nbn Home Fast, Home Superfast or Home Ultrafast services, on demand².

“We have always maintained a good balance in our approach to these upgrades, so that we deliver balanced benefits to metropolitan and regional Australia. Our latest list of suburbs and towns demonstrates that we are making good on our promise of the delivery of faster speeds⁴, and we are making great progress with design and construction on the programs well underway across the country.

“We are on track to achieve our goal of enabling around 8 million premises or up to 75 per cent of homes and businesses on the fixed line network to access nbn’s highest wholesale speed tiers, on demand, by the end of 2023.”

The fibre extensions announced today includes eligible premises in parts of the following suburbs and towns³: 

Performance summary for the first quarter of FY22 ended 30 September 2021

NBN Co’s Q1 FY22 financial results for the three months to 30 September 2021 were in line with previously provided full year guidance.

The company generated $1.25 billion in total revenue during the first quarter of FY22, up 17 per cent on the corresponding period in FY21.

Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA), after subscriber costs, was $714 million in the first quarter, up from $102 million in the first quarter of FY21. The company recorded $86 million in subscriber payments to Telstra and Optus during the quarter, compared to $469 million in the prior corresponding period. As previously stated, these subscriber payments will continue to decrease and are forecast to cease by FY24.

More than 110,000 new homes and businesses were connected to the nbn™ network during the quarter, taking total activations to 8.3 million by 30 September 2021.

Approximately 77 per cent of residential and business customers were connected to plans based on nbn wholesale speed tiers with peak download speeds of 50 Mbps² and above and approximately 16 per cent were on nbn wholesale speed tiers offering peak download speeds of 100Mbps or higher.

In the three months to 30 September 2021, the company raised a further $1.8 billion in bank and capital markets debt and repaid an additional $2.3 billion of the Commonwealth loan, reducing the outstanding balance to $10.9 billion. On 8 October 2021, NBN Co successfully raised US$2.0 billion (A$2.755bn equivalent) from the US144A / Reg S markets under its Global Medium Term Note (GMTN) program to further expand its global investor base.

Notes to editor:

1. NBN Co reserves the right to amend the list of targeted suburbs and towns for the local fibre network build at its discretion. 
2. Conditions, eligibility criteria and costs will apply. Eligibility criteria is expected to include, among other things, being designated by nbn as a simple premises (e.g. standalone premises or Single Dwelling Unit (SDU)) and once the program is available for an eligible premises, placing an order for an nbn™ powered plan based on an eligible wholesale speed tier. Additional costs may apply to providers, who may choose to pass this charge onto their customers. 
3. Regardless of the retail service you purchase, the actual wholesale speeds delivered by nbn’s highest wholesale speed tiers of 500 to close to 1000 Mbps will be less than 1Gbps due to equipment and network limitations and the peak information rate may fall anywhere in this range. In addition, the HFC Home Ultrafast bandwidth profile downstream service provided to retail providers is a ranged profile with a maximum sustained information rate of 750Mbps. Reference to speeds are not end user speeds; they are wholesale layer 2 peak information rate bandwidth provided to retail providers. An end customer’s experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn network, depends on some factors outside our control (like equipment quality, software, and how your retail service provider designs its network) and the nbn technology used for your connection. 
4. An end customer’s experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn™ broadband access network, depends on the nbn™ access network technology and configuration over which services are delivered to their premises, whether they are using the internet during the busy period, and some factors outside of NBN Co’s control (like their equipment quality, software, chosen broadband plan, signal reception, or how their provider designs its network).