This year, the NBN has absolutely blasted through their construction, activation and revenue targets for 2017. This is a monumental achievement for the NBN, with its footprint reaching a whopping 5.7 million premises in Australia, 2.4 million active services and a very impressive $1 Billion dollar revenue. 

In fact, in the 12 months ending 30 June 2017 (end of financial year), the number of premises that were ready for service almost doubled from 2.9 million to 5.7 million - exceeding their 2017 Corporate Plan target of 5.4 million premises. The number of homes and businesses with an active NBN service has more than doubled from its initial 1.1 million to 2.4 million, once again smashing through their initial goal of 2.4 million active services. With this increase in the number of individuals using the NBN, revenue has more than doubled from $421 million to $1 billion - surpassing initial revenue goals of $900 million dollars. If that is not enough, the icing on the cake is that NBN remains in the top quartile of both Aussie and New Zealand companies. 

As you can see from the statistics mentioned above, NBN earlier this month announced that it had exceeded its three core FY 2017 targets and remain confident that they would connect most of Australia to super fast and efficient broadband both on time and budget. 

Whilst reaching a significant construction scale as well as doubling the number of end users on the network, the NBN has also celebrated a number of other additional highlights for the period. During the course of the year, NBN launched its 2nd satellite Sky Muster ll into space, announced the introduction of fibre-to-the-curb technology; secured enough funding to complete the NBN rollout; reached the halfway built mark; and, on top of everything, applied a new CVC discounting model for retailers. NBN also announced the forthcoming product enhancements that include an increase to the Sky Muster™ data cap as well as a 100/40Mbps wholesale product on Fixed Wireless.

The NBN has also experienced a significant year of construction, having almost doubled their entire footprint to 5.7 million homes ready for service, smashing through the halfway mark. When we hone into the non-metro footprint alone, we will come to see that the NBN network is already two-thirds completed. When it comes to the metro footprint, we see that it is one-third completed, with a strong focus on construction in major cities scheduled for FY 2018. 

In fact, to almost double the footprint shows incredible amounts of progress, meaning that many more of us Aussies will soon have access to fast broadband. The momentum recently has seen the NBN team deliver a record number of  140,000 premises to the footprint in one week, putting them right in the centre of their peak construction period. During the financial year, NBN added another 2.8 million premises to its footprint, exceeding its forecast by 300,000 premises. Looking ahead, FY 2018 will be another significant construction year for the NBN, and the most visible one too, as they begin to roll out in high-density cities and introduce Fibre-to-the-Curb into the mix. 

In terms of activations for FY 2017, the number of premises connected to retail services on the network grew by an incredible 122% during the period to a whopping 2.4 million premises, drawing in a grand amount of $1 billion in revenue. Whilst the NBN did indeed recognise that some issues have been raised with activation processes, take-up is both earlier and stronger than initially expected. At the end of the 18-month migration window, of those who can connect to the NBN, more than three quarters have already done so. This is higher than NBN’s initial forecast take-up rate, with a majority of connections now occurring in the first six months of the migration window.

As mentioned by CEO Bill Morrow, whilst the NBN has indeed seen a higher volume of issues when connecting, they do remain relative to the pace of the build and reach of the network. He has mentioned that the NBN continued to improve processes and integration with those of their delivery partners and retailers for seamless access to retail services on the NBN network.

Overall, the vast majority of people using the NBN network at the moment are very satisfied and as for those who aren’t, the NBN listens closely to issues brought up by users. NBN is always keen to adjust, learn and improve, all in a bid to provide users with the best broadband experience they could possibly find in Australia. 

In summary, the NBM performed exceptionally well against the plan in fiscal 2017 and continues to with almost six million homes and businesses able to connect and nearly three million using services on the network today. The momentum they have is undeniable and we are sure that this is only the beginning of their reign.