4.2 Million homes now connected to the NBN – the Cost of Fibre made clear

Right now there are 7.1 million homes and businesses able to connect to the NBN – 4.2 million of them have connected, an increase of 1.8million in just one year.

That means more than 100,000 homes are connecting to the NBN every month, while the NBN readies twice that many for connection.  This is all happening as the roll out draws nearer to its end in 2020 – though not near enough for the many still waiting.

The biggest gripe I hear today about the NBN is that people don’t have it, because the classic gripes about speed or technology have been shelved because people are finding the service far better than has been reported over many years.

This is not without some effort on the part of the Telcos and the NBN – it took far too long for the NBN to realise the problems people were having with connection and the disconnect that existed between customers, their telco and the NBN.

The last twelve months has seen some important changes, not least the new pricing structure which has driven many more users onto the higher 50 and 100 speed plans.

At the same time a dramatic increase in Fibre to the Node connections (over 1.4 million new premises) and the commencement of the Fibre to the Curb (Kerb!) roll out have meant a big ramp up in available homes for connection.

Problematically, the financial year was marred by the higher than normal issues being reported on the Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) network, which led to the NBN halting connections on that network while it was remedied.  This meant that while the number of homes ready for NBN service via the HFC cable rose from 700,000 to 1,400,000 – the number of homes ready to connect (ie: cleared of the issues) dropped from 600,000 to just under 500,000.

It’s expected that ready to connect number will jump radically in the months ahead as connections recommence.

Financially, Average Revenue Per User went up by $1 to $44, while total revenue was $1,978 million – almost 2 Billion Dollars.

As if to throw the “Multi Technology Mix” in the face of the Fibre hopeful, the cost per premises of the NBN roll out is laid bare with running Fibre to existing homes proving dramatically more expensive ($4,401) per home than either FTTN or HFC ($2,244 and $2,412).

With an election due well within the next 12 months, the concept of change is also made difficult as the NBN confirm 99% of the total final network is now designed ready for construction, which means any change to the course would delay further the entire roll-out.

If you’re not sure if the NBN is available at your home, or want to check when it’s likely to be available – the NBN website has an address checker ready to use.