NBN Co scales towards 2020

NBN Co – the company building and operating Australia’s broadband network – has recorded a 46 per cent increase in revenue to $1.3 billion as incremental growth continues across all key metrics.

Performance summary as at 31 December 2018:

• 8.1 million premises ready to connect, an increase of 32 per cent compared to the six months ended 31 December 2017 (HY18).
• More than 4.6 million premises with an active service over the nbn™ access network, an increase of 38 per cent in comparison to HY18.
• $1.3 billion in total revenue, up 46 per cent in comparison to HY18.
• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of $45 per month.

At the conclusion of the first half of the fiscal year there were 8.1 million premises ready to connect due to the scaling of the network build which added 1.1 million premises to the footprint over the six month period.  This means that approximately 70 per cent of Australian homes and businesses are now able to order a service over the nbn™ access network.

More than 4.6 million homes and businesses were connected to the nbn™ network through a retail service provider as at 31 December 2018.

As the build gathers pace, so does the company’s revenue, which surpassed $1.3 billion in the first half of the 2019 fiscal year. This revenue increase was supported by an uplift in ARPU to $45 per month, indicating the company’s progress towards reaching ARPU of $51 by FY22.

NBN Co CEO, Stephen Rue, said:

“I’m proud of the nbn team and industry wide effort to deliver another remarkable set of results over the last six months.

“With less than eighteen months of the rollout remaining, there is a significant amount of work still to be done in partnership with the industry, as we continue our momentum to deliver on our biggest ever deployment year and transition into our biggest activation year.

“I have full confidence in our ability to reach our 2020 target as our strong track record demonstrates.  The executive leadership team remain focused on ensuring universal broadband access to all of Australia by the middle of next year.

“In partnership with the industry, we are continually seeking to make further improvements to ensure an end user customer experience which is aligned with consumer expectations.

“As we continue to make more and more premises ready to connect each month, this is helping to ensure the nation is at the forefront of digital innovation to deliver enhanced social and economic benefits across the community.”

Focus on end user customer experience

NBN Co also released its latest monthly progress report for January 2019, showing that 91 per cent of nbn™ equipment installations in its control were done right the first time, and that technicians are meeting 87 per cent of the agreed installation times with retail service providers over the month of January 2019.

Retailers are continuing to embrace new wholesale pricing discounts, which has seen 57 per cent of activated premises connected to the 50 Mbps wholesale download speed tier plans or above, compared to 16 per cent for the same time last year.

In December 2018, the company delivered on its commitment to publish performance for Fixed Wireless cells during busy periods.  This follows a previously announced $800 million upgrade program to expand the capacity of our Fixed Wireless network.

Notes to editors

• Monthly progress report: NBN Co’s monthly progress report is designed to give Australians a clearer understanding of the ways the company is taking action to improve end user customer experience. The metrics used relate to services NBN Co delivers to phone and internet providers and the physical connection of homes and businesses to nbn™ infrastructure. The metrics do not cover services supplied by providers to end users. Metrics are based on averages, summaries and simplifications – end user experiences vary. For important information on the metrics and their descriptions, please visit nbn.com.au/updates.
• Installed right the first time: This metric excludes things outside NBN Co’s control (like reschedules and cancellations of appointments, premises “shortfalls” and bad weather).
• Meeting agreed installation times: This metric excludes Priority Assistance connections and Accelerated Connections.
• Average network bandwidth congestion: The metric excludes the Sky Muster™ satellite service. Bandwidth congestion depends on the capacity purchased by internet providers. Numbers are indicative only.
• Fixed Line network congestion: This metric excludes Fixed Wireless and the Sky Muster™ satellite service. Network congestion varies between Fixed Line technologies. Calculations based on the utilisation of shared parts of the nbn™ Fixed Line access network.
• Network availability: The Wholesale Broadband Agreement (WBA) includes detailed rules for defining and measuring network availability and includes a number of exceptions such as planned outages.
• Meeting agreed fault restoration times: This metric relates to individual service faults on the nbn™ access network. Agreed service levels vary by premises location and differ for the Sky Muster™ satellite network. The Wholesale Broadband Agreement (WBA) includes detailed rules for defining “nbn faults” and this metric excludes Priority Assistance Faults or Enhanced Faults.
• Faults per 100 connected homes and businesses: This metric relates to individual service faults on the nbn™ access network and excludes faults within 10 business days of the connection. The calculation of this metric has changed from October 2018 and should not be compared with the old “Faults per 100 connected homes and businesses” metric as contained in previous monthly progress reports.
• Fixed Wireless busy hour network performance: This design threshold is based on an average 30 day downlink throughput of 6Mbps during the busiest hour of the day (typically between 7pm and 11pm) (referred to here as “monthly busy hour cell performance”).Actual end user speeds will differ to the monthly busy hour cell performance, and are affected by various factors, such as but are not limited to: radio conditions for end users, demand from end users, types of download and upload traffic.

For more information, visit www.nbn.com.au.