Strong quarter for NBN

NBN Co says it is on track to complete the rollout of Australia’s broadband network by 2020, after adding 708,000 new homes and businesses to its system and more than doubling revenue in the September quarter.

Most of the growth in new customers comes on the back of a lift in fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) connections, with the number of FTTN users now exceeding fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) users, the company said yesterday.

The government-owned business reached a total of 6.4 million premises as of September 30, up from 3.2 million homes and businesses at the same time last year, helping network revenue more than double to $405 million, compared to $181 million recorded a year ago.

Active uses also rose, lifting to 2.96 million at September- end, compared to 1.38 million a year ago, while operating expenses grew to $502 million, from $430 million last year, due to increased labour and direct network costs on the back of the expanding network.

A Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman report in October found that NBN complaints were rising at a faster rate than the number of users, with 16,221 fault complaints from 2.44 million NBN users in 2016/17.

Chief executive Bill Morrow said the company would introduce new processes and tools to isolate problems and iron out the consumer issues.

NBN Co hopes to add 11.6 million home and businesses to its network and 8.1 million premises on an NBN powered plan with a retail service provider by 2020. It is also targeting to reach $4.9 billion in annual revenue.

AAP