NBN Co is now upgrading 5000 premises a week to FTTP

NBN Co says it has doubled the number of premises being upgraded to full fibre since August, while also revealing work to enable its fixed wireless network to deliver wholesale speeds in excess of 325Mbps.

CEO Stephen Rue made the twin disclosures in a speech to a CommsDay Wholesale Forum event on Thursday.

The company missed its initial targets for the ‘Fibre Connect’ program, under which customers in the fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) and fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) footprints can be upgraded to fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), if they place a qualifying order.

At the time, NBN Co said it was moving around 3000 premises a week to FTTP.

Rue said that in a few short months, the rate has increased to approximately 5000 premises per week.

“Through our Fibre connect program we’re currently upgrading approximately 5000 additional premises to FTTP technology every week, and this has doubled since August 2023 as more footprint has become available and retailers have completed their processes, enabling them to ramp up volumes of upgrades,” Rue said.

“We’re extremely focused on driving volumes of Fibre Connect orders.”

Most of NBN Co’s public announcements on Fibre Connect are about the number of premises that can theoretically order an upgrade, not on the number of premises where an upgrade has taken place.

With more of the retail service provider (RSP) ecosystem geared up to sell upgrades, the process appears to have been de-bottlenecked.

Possibly also assistive is growth in NBN Co’s own field force: as reported in February, NBN Co has been building out its internal capability.

Rue said today that “the NBN internal field workforce now makes up about 20 percent of our entire headcount.”

More fixed wireless speed boosts

Rue also provided commentary on the company’s upgrades to its fixed wireless network, where 5G technology will make speeds of up to 325Mbps possible by the end of 2024.

But Rue revealed that “competition” is already driving NBN Co to look beyond the 320Mbps wholesale speed limit.

“The marketplace is constantly changing and we’re seeing increased competition,” he said.

“We believe we may be able to deliver even better services to customers, so we are considering options that will make available additional products with the potential for even higher maximum wholesale download speeds.”

Rue also said that the company is “working on plans” for its 5G-capable wireless network termination devices (NTDs) “to be capable of enabling multi-gigabit speeds in the near future.”

'Brilliant' partner

Given the landmark passage of a revised special access undertaking (SAU) earlier this week, after a number of previous attempts, Rue indicated NBN Co is keen to reflect the SAU in its commercial agreements, as well as in the way it interacted with RSPs.

“Now that the SAU consultation is behind us, we at NBN Co want to work even closer with our retail partners to serve customers, to drive efficiencies across the industry, to simplify, to be easier to work with - In fact, to be a brilliant partner for the industry,” he said.

“By working together, we can ensure that the NBN network continues to be resilient, reliable and secure, and play a key role in unlocking new social and economic benefits for households, businesses and communities across the nation and to underpin the digital economy.”