NBN Co sets no new fibre take-up target

NBN Co has not put a public target on the number of fibre-to-the-node and fibre-to-the-curb premises it wants to see move to full fibre in FY24, despite it being a "fundamental" metric and goal of the upgrade program.

The company's first service improvement plan [pdf] is notable because it does not set a take-up target for upgrades under the 'fibre connect' program more broadly - and appears to lay the groundwork not to publish take-up targets at all on an ongoing basis.

As previously reported by iTnews, NBN Co set and then missed an activation target under the 'fibre connect' program for FY23 by a considerable amount.

The company has since recovered and recently said it is now upgrading 5000 premises a week.

But it has not set a target for the number of upgrades it hopes to perform across FY24, or at least included a target in its service improvement plan.

The only targets continue to be on the number of premises that can order an upgrade, not on the actual number of upgraders.

Despite having no public targets, NBN Co does specifically say that take-up is important, and devotes a whole section to it.

"Fundamental to realising the service experience benefits of the FTTP upgrade program is the migration of end users from the existing copper network onto the upgraded FTTP network," it states.

The company partially disassociates itself from being able to set a target, however, because activations depend on RSPs pushing upgrades, and both NBN Co and RSPs being able to effectively market the upgrades to end users.

"While NBN Co is responsible for the construction of lead-ins to upgrade premises from either FTTC or FTTN to the FTTP access technology, RSPs play a critical role in actively promoting and facilitating this migration," NBN Co said.

"Only when end users have placed an order to connect to FTTP and been migrated will they be able to take advantage of the significant capability enhancements offered by the upgraded network.

"To help support the rate at which end users migrate onto the upgraded network, NBN Co is working closely with RSPs to actively promote and facilitate a faster and positive service experience in migrating to FTTP technology."

The company outlined some backend IT work that it hopes will make take-up easier for RSPs to sell, and easier for end users to see is an option to them in the first place.

NBN plans to make IT system changes "to release eligible full fibre upgrade locations (i.e. those locations where an FTTP upgrade can be ordered) to the public".

It also intends to "change [its] internal systems to improve RSP visibility of locations that have new technologies, enabling RSPs to market to these locations and increase [the] take-up rate."

NBN Co is pinning future service standard improvements to having more of its network operating on full fibre, but this upgrade work will take years to complete. 

The company has made limited commitments to raise standards in the interim, because it would be too costly to meet higher standards on the copper portions of its network.