NBN Co connects 1 million premises to higher speed plans

NBN Co, the company building Australia's broadband network, has announced that the number of Australian homes and business connected to higher speed plans over the NBN broadband access network has more than doubled with new figures revealing more than 1 million people have upgraded their internet speeds in the last four months. The report shows that orders for plans over the NBN access network based on wholesale speeds of 50Mbps or higher increased from 16 percent in December 2017 to 37 percent in March 2018.

According to NBN Co, the growth has been driven by the company’s ‘Focus on 50’ wholesale promotion, which provides retailers with discounted pricing on higher speed NBN plans as well as a 50 percent boost of additional bandwidth. 

NBN Co has also announced that it plans to start selling the new wholesale pricing options from May, following months of continued industry consultation. 

The rollout of the NBN access network is more than half way built with more than 3.7 million homes and businesses already connected. NBN Co also reports that it remains on track to complete the rollout of the network and connect 8 million homes and businesses by end-2020.

NBN Co’s March 2018 monthly progress report also shows that there are around 6.5 million Australian homes and businesses who are able to connect to the NBN access network, compared with 4.5 million in March 2017. Australia also has 3.7 million homes and businesses connected to a plan over the NBN access network, compared with 2 million in March 2017.

There are 87 percent of homes and businesses who had their NBN equipment installed right the first time, compared with 85 percent in March 2017. Nearly 92 percent of homes and businesses across Australia were connected within the agreed timeframes with phone and internet providers, compared with 88 percent in March 2017. The average home or business connected to the NBNaccess network is now experiencing around 18 minutes per week of bandwidth congestion, compared with 6 hours and 55 minutes per week in March 2017.

Australia also has 0.068 per cent of all homes and businesses connected to the NBN fixed-line access network who have experienced network congestion, compared with 0.370 per cent in March 2017. There are 37 per cent of homes and businesses on a 50Mbps (download) wholesale speed plan or higher, compared with 16 percent in March 2017.

The NBN access network was up and running more than 99.93 percent of the time, compared to 100.00 percent in March 2017. There are 83 percent of faults resolved with phone and internet providers within the agreed time frames, versus 65 percent in March 2017. The report also shows that there are an average 1.0 per 100 homes and business who experienced a fault on the NBN access network this month, compared to 0.9 in March 2017.