NBN roll-out reaches halfway mark
The roll-out of the NBN has reached its halfway mark with over 5.7 million premises now passed and ready for service.
According to nbn CEO Bill Morrow, the company is now adding up to 100,000 new properties to its footprint each week – a build rate which will have to be maintained, if not increased, over the next 12 months if it is to achieve its aim of having three quarters of the network built by mid-2018.
The company offered no new national figures on activation rates i.e actual take-up of retail services over the NBN, but Morrow did say that in areas where the 18 month conversion “window” had closed, 3 out of 4 premises had taken up services.
This is well above the target national activation rate for 2017 of 43%. But it must be remembered that that figure takes into account the lag in take-ups once an area is declared ready for service.
The longer-term issue is what the activation rate will be when the project is complete i.e. the network fully operational and all migration has been taken place.
The NBN’s business case continues to be based on the assumption that, into the indefinite future, only 15% of premises will rely entirely on wireless broadband rather than take up NBN services. But industry analysts believe the figure is already closer to 20%...and rising.
