NBN Co revenue surpasses $1b for the first time

NBN Co has more than doubled its revenue in the first nine months, on the back of solid construction progress and a surge in the number of homes and businesses connected to the national broadband network.

The company responsible for the NBN rollout says revenue for the nine months to March 31 had risen to $1.4 billion, from $665 million a year ago, with two million more premises ready to connect compared to the same time last year. NBN Co said that by March 31, there were 6.5 million premises ready for connection and 3.7 million active connections across the network, up 1.7 million compared to this time last year.

The jump in activations helped lift revenue past $1 billion for the first time, NBN Co said yesterday.

Progress in construction, in particular work on the Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) network, had helped the company connect end users more effectively and improved customers’ broadband experience.

The company said it worked with internet providers to help reduced average bandwidth congestion across the network, supporting higher speeds during busy periods.

“Average congestion has decreased more than six hours a week per service in March 2017 to 18 minutes today,” NBN Co said.

In April, NBN Co said the number of Australia homes and businesses connected to faster national broadband speed plans had more than doubled thanks to its temporary discounted pricing - which have now been superseded by new bundles in May.

Orders for wholesale speeds of 50Mbps or higher rose from 16 per cent in December to 37 per cent after the company temporarily slashed the cost of its 50Mbps speed plan in December to the price of its 25Mbps speed plan - its most popular bundle.

Outgoing NBN chief executive Bill Morrow said the company had made significant improvements to its customer services.

“Our monthly progress report demonstrates that our customer experience program is working,” Mr Morrow said.