NBN Co

Last updated

NBN Co Limited
Company type State-owned enterprise
Industry Telecommunications
FoundedApril 2009 (2009-04)
Headquarters
Melbourne [1]
,
Australia
Key people
ServicesWholesale data network
RevenueIncrease2.svgA$5.3 billion (2023) [2]
Increase2.svgA$133 million (2023) [2]
Increase2.svgA$−1.1 billion (2023) [2]
Total assets Increase2.svgA$37.94 billion (2023) [2]
Owner Australian Government
Number of employees
4,690 (2023) [2]
Website nbnco.com.au

NBN Co Limited, known as simply nbn, is a publicly owned corporation of the Australian Government, tasked to design, build and operate Australia's National Broadband Network as the nation's wholesale broadband provider. The corporation reports to two shareholder ministers: the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Communications. [3]

Contents

History

NBN Co was established on 9 April 2009 under the name of its company number, "A.C.N. 136 533 741 Limited". [4] After the establishment, the Australian Government started referring to the company as "National Broadband Network Company", [5] which became the de facto company name. It was officially named "NBN Co Limited" on 6 October 2009. [6] [7] [8] [9] It traded as "NBN Co" until 26 April 2015 when it began trading simply as "nbn". [10]

In 2019, NBN Co announced that by May 2020 [11] retail service providers will be able to pool all their connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) bandwidth nationally.

In February 2020, the company announced that 6.7 million homes and businesses were connected to a plan over the nbn access network – compared with 4.9 million in February 2019. [12]

NBN Co developed a satellite internet program named Sky Muster aimed at rural areas. As of July 2023, $620 million had been invested. [13] However, the program experienced fierce competition from Starlink satellites. Sky Muster consists of two geosynchronous satellites orbiting over 35,000 km above Earth's surface, resulting in latency times around 600 ms (at 25 Mbps), compared to Starlink's latency of below 40 ms (for 100-200 Mbps). [14]

NBN and retail service providers

As a wholesale provider of broadband access through its level two networks, NBN provides broadband access predominantly to retail service providers (RSPs); these businesses on sell access to end users; both residential and business customers to access the internet.

At 30 June 2016, Telstra had 45.5%, TPG group had 24.8% and Optus had 12.4% of all end users connecting to the NBN. [15]

There has been a significant failure of the NBN to deliver nominal performance to end users. There has been contention between RSPs and NBN on the reasons for this. Bill Morrow, then CEO of NBN, admitted in 2017 that 15% of end users received a poor service through the NBN and were 'seriously dissatisfied'. [16] In addition, Morrow indicated that, at July 2017, prices and performance for end users were suppressed through a 'price war' between RSPs. [17] [18]

Contractual arrangements

NBN contracts mainly with RSPs to provide wholesale broadband access, with limited supply of backhaul to other organisations (for example providing backhaul services to Vodafone). [19]

National Broadband Network

Under the Rudd and Gillard governments' NBN Co corporate plan, it was estimated that the NBN construction would require A$27.5 billion in government equity and raise an estimated A$13.4 billion in debt funding without government support; a total funding requirement of A$40.9 billion up to FY2021. Financial forecasts for NBN Co assuming a 7% internal rate of return (IRR) expect the government and debt equity will be fully repaid including accrued interest by FY2040. [20] Following the election of the Abbott government, NBN Co reassessed financial forecasts and progress of the NBN roll-out and published a strategic review in December 2013.

In response to what the Abbott and Turnbull governments stated to be excessive performance specifications and costs they moved from a model which previously focused on FTTP (fibre to the premises) to a multi-technology mix [21] model using FTTx, including FTTP, FTTN (fibre to the node), FTTB (fibre to the building or basement) and most recently FTTdp (fibre to the distribution point); and HFC (hybrid fibre coaxial) in metropolitan areas. Regional and remote areas were mainly unchanged as a result of the strategic review and typically receive a service using either fixed wireless, using LTE technology, or satellite.

The NBN network, at 2022, draws together wired communication (copper, optical and hybrid fibre-coaxial) and radio communication (satellite and fixed wireless networks) at 121 points of interconnect typically located in Telstra owned telephone exchanges throughout Australia. It also sells access for mobile telecommunication backhaul to mobile telecommunications providers. [19]

In February 2017, Bill Morrow (former CEO) stated that there is no significant demand for wired connections above 25 Mbit/s and consideration of upgrading the network will not be undertaken until demand for high-bandwidth services is proven. [22]

In August 2019, Stephen Rue (CEO), announced the completion of the $51 billion National Broadband Network by June 2020. [23] However, some service areas were still being rolled out in late 2020/2021 with FTTP to FTTN/FTTC premises

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References

  1. ↑ "NBN Co Limited". Australian Government Directory. Australian Government. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 NBN Co (September 2023). "nbn Annual Report FY2023" (PDF). Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  3. ↑ NBN Co. NBN Co Annual Report 2010 (PDF) (Report). NBN Co. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  4. ↑ NBN Co Limited, National names index, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, archived from the original on 9 October 2011, retrieved 2 June 2011
  5. ↑ LeMay, Renai; Tindal, Suzanne (7 April 2009), NBN company established, looks for CEO, ZDNet , retrieved 1 June 2011
  6. ↑ LeMay, Renai (7 October 2009), It's official: 'NBN Co. Ltd' is the name, ZDNet , retrieved 1 June 2011
  7. ↑ Beer, Stan (7 April 2009), NBN to make 49% up for grabs but who wants it?, iTWire, archived from the original on 3 April 2011, retrieved 1 June 2011
  8. ↑ Tindal, Suzanne (1 May 2009), NBN company constitution revealed, ZDNet , retrieved 1 June 2011
  9. ↑ LeMay, Renai (30 April 2009), NBN company details hard to find, ZDNet , retrieved 1 June 2011
  10. ↑ Ramli, David (25 April 2015), "NBN Co spends $700,000 to drop 'Co'", Sydney Morning Herald , retrieved 27 April 2015
  11. ↑ "NBN Co to allow internet providers to pool CVC nationally". iTnews. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  12. ↑ "NBNco progress Updated February 2020".
  13. ↑ "NBN aims to match Elon Musk's Starlink but may have to write off $620m". Australian Financial Review. 5 July 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  14. ↑ Biggs, Tim (7 July 2023). "Telstra's Starlink deal could signal a new era of connectivity in hard-to-reach places". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  15. ↑ Ry Crozier, (22 September 2016), Three ISPs take 83 percent of NBN market, itnews. Retrieved 4 August 2017
  16. ↑ Michael Smith & Tony Boyd, (24 July 2017), NBN to review pricing as part of image problem fix, Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 25 July 2017
  17. ↑ Nick Whigham, (28 July 2017), NBN embarks on charm offensive to address confusion and complaints, news.com.au. Retrieved 29 July 2017
  18. ↑ Ry Crozier, (31 July 2017), NBN Co boss declares war with internet providers: Blames ISPs for performance problems, ITNews. Retrieved 31 July 2017
  19. 1 2 Rohan Pearce, (3 February 2017), Vodafone first telco to use NBN for mobile coverage boost, Computerworld. Retrieved 9 March 2017
  20. ↑ NBN Corporate Plan (PDF) (Report). NBN Co. 17 December 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  21. ↑ Turnbull, Malcolm. "NBN Co to roll out new multi-technology mix".
  22. ↑ Lucy Battersby, 1 March 2017 Gigabit per second speeds aren't needed yet, NBN Co boss Bill Morrow says, The Age. Retrieved 1 March 2017
  23. ↑ Ryan, Peter (15 August 2019). "NBN chief rejects suggestions the project is a 'cut-price lemon', says it will be complete by mid-2020". ABC News. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
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