Blog

For over 15 years, I have watched the National Broadband Network (NBN) become one of the most politicised infrastructure projects in Australia’s history. What was supposed to be a game-changing, future-proof national interest project has instead been used as a political football, with disastrous consequences for the country’s digital future. The Liberal Party’s decision to […]

I have mentioned this article over the last two weeks, but here it is. It actually fits in well with the articles from the last two weeks on the NBN and many of the previous NBN discussion we had here in the Australian Independent. The NBN has long been a story of over-investment in potential

The Albanese Government has reiterated its commitment to completing the National Broadband Network (NBN) and keeping NBN Co in public hands. The announcement of a $3 billion equity injection, complemented by NBN Co’s own $800 million contribution, aims to upgrade the remaining fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network. These upgrades will enable access to faster and more reliable

Government moves to block any future NBN privatisation amid fears it would hurt consumers

This week, the government announced its intention to introduce new legislation that would keep the National Broadband Network (NBN) in public hands, reinforcing its election promise. The proposed law, expected to be tabled in federal parliament, aims to prevent any future sale of the NBN, pushing the Coalition to clarify whether it would seek to

Hello from Norway where over 70% if households are now connected to Fibre-to-the-Home or Fibre-to-the-Premise networks. I am using the opportunity to provide you with an overview of developments in this northern country with its beautiful fjords and stunning landscape. Everything is digital here, parking, shopping, museums, trains, you name it. No wonder that the

The June quarter of 2024 has seen smaller telcos making significant strides in the NBN market, according to the latest NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The report, prepared by NBN Co, provides a detailed overview of the NBN wholesale market, with a particular focus on residential

NBN Co has faced significant challenges in balancing its financial performance despite making strides in operational efficiency and revenue growth. The company’s financial results for FY24 reveal a complex landscape where increased revenue and reduced operational costs are overshadowed by a substantial net loss. However, NBN Co remains committed to its long-term infrastructure goals, particularly

Sigh…. Twenty years after people like me started to argue for fibre-based broadband infrastructure, and fifteen years after the government decided that fibre was the best technology for 94% of all Australians, we now get confirmation that Fibre to the Premises (FttP) is the best technology. Additionally, some ten years after Independent MP Tony Windsor

The NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report, prepared quarterly for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) by NBN Co, offers a comprehensive overview of the NBN wholesale market. This report, focusing on residential broadband access services, highlights the latest trends and key statistics in the market for the March quarter of 2024. Telstra’s market share

NBN Co’s groundbreaking plan to boost broadband speeds across Australia is finally delivering the first-class broadband service that Australia as a modern society needs. The announcement has captured the attention of millions, promising to make its most popular plan five times faster without any additional charges. This initiative, aimed at meeting the escalating demand for

Following my article from last week and your reactions to it, I think it is important to say a few words before delving into another ‘glowing’ nbn story from the company itself, obviously with a bit of spinning that you can expect from large corporations. What we are witnessing now, both regarding the growth of

In recent years, Australia has witnessed a profound transformation in its digital landscape, propelled by the accelerated rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN). New economic research conducted by Accenture commissioned by NBN Co sheds light on the substantial benefits of a faster and more robust NBN network, with implications spanning economic growth, workforce demographics,

The government’s initiative to enhance the National Broadband Network (NBN) has expanded eligibility for full-fibre broadband upgrades to over 3 million Australians. An additional 400,000 homes and businesses are set to benefit from this plan, as the latest list of eligible suburbs and towns has been unveiled. These newly eligible premises were previously serviced by

The latest update of the ACCC report “Measuring Broadband Australia (MBA) “ delves into the broadband performance of NBN fixed-line connections in both urban and regional Australia, with a focus on the program’s insights gathered in September 2023. While the report primarily scrutinises fixed-line connections, it acknowledges the prevalence of fixed wireless and satellite connections

As foreshadowed in my previous articles the new National Broadband Network (NBN) wholesale agreements as have been under discussion for many years were approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Under that agreement the NBN company is now able to increase it prices for its lower tier products, while at the same time

After nearly three years of reporting on the troubled pricing policies of NBN Co,  the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has finally given its approval to a revised Special Access Undertaking (SAU) for the National Broadband Network (NBN). This decision ushers in a new era of NBN pricing and service standards. While the changes

Last week NBN Co revealed its 2024 corporate plan, outlining its strategies to enhance its network capabilities and improve user experiences across Australia. While it provided valuable insights into NBN Co’s network upgrade initiatives and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts, they question remain as we have mentioned before, will the network be affordable. It

In a significant development for Australia’s broadband landscape, NBN Co and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) have reengaged in negotiations, following NBN Co’s submission of an amended Special Access Undertaking (SAU) Variation. This new proposal finally reflects a paradigm shift in wholesale pricing, aiming to bolster internet speeds, accommodate surging data demands, and

As part of the ACCC industry consultation process, Telstra and Optus have again complained about NBN Co lack of service quality improvements in the wholesale broadband agreement (WBA). NBN Co has rejected all proposed improvements by Telstra and Optus, leading retail service providers (RSPs) to call for intervention by regulators and the government to raise

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has been working with the government, the National Broadband Network (NBN) Co, and retail service providers (RSPs) to establish price and service standards that will govern the NBN’s operation; known as Special Access Undertaking – SAUs). The current process has been ongoing since early 2021, with the latest

The NBN company announced that it will have to lay-off 500 people in order to lower their costs as they are facing increased competitive pressure from the other players in the market. It looks to me that this means that NBN Co forced to realise that by following the political winds and going ahead with

In February 2023 NBN Co released its first half-yearly result to December 2022. I will be looking behind the self-congratulations that took place. However, for the statistics, it has reported total revenue of $2.6 billion — a 4% increase on H1 FY22. None of that is unexpected; as the roll-out keeps going, new premises are

While there is still a lot that needs fixing, going into the new year, the basis for the NBN is back on a much better foundation. Just before the end of last year, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland released an extensive Statement of Expectations for NBN Co. This basically brings the NBN policy back to its

Recently I covered the Special Access Undertaking Variation that NBN Co presented to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The major news here was that this resulted in a $30 billion write-down of the losses that the NBN occurred during the rollout of its infrastructure. However, interestingly, its submission also included supporting documentation to

Australia’s oldest telecommunications society, TelSoc, organised a very interesting forum discussion with Anna Brakey, a commissioner and chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s communications committee and the most senior person in the ACCC in charge of telecommunications. In her presentation, Ms Brakey covered a variety of issues such as competition, the NBN,

It was interesting to note that NBN Co used its submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regarding the proposed mobile infrastructure sharing arrangement between Telstra and TPG Telecom to ask the regulator for more protection against mobile competition. Under the ten-year Telstra-TPG regional Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) commercial agreement, TPG customers will

The latest Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) ‘NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report’ shows the top three telcos (Telstra, TPG and Optus) have suffered a slight loss in customers, while smaller internet retailers have increased their customer numbers. Each one of them lost 0.3% market share and the new standings are now: Telstra 43.7%, TPG

We have covered the government and opposition plans for the NBN in the past, but there is a commitment from the new Government to extend fibre deeper into the market. However, the real problem is the high costs of the NBN. This makes the wholesale prices higher and therefore also the retail price. As I

With the election looming, money becomes available, especially for those projects that are drawing a lot of criticism to the Government and the NBN certainly is one of those areas. Predictably, the NBN is receiving a boost in the upcoming Budget.  The Government has indicated that it will invest a further $480 million in the

Over the last years, I have written many articles in which I argued that the high costs for building the NBN have at least partly to do with the party politics that have been pursued by the Government. As soon as Tony Abbott announced that the NBN should be killed, the issue became political and

In the running up to the company’s six-month financial announcement, NBN Co indicated that it would start in April rolling out its latest rebate campaigns — under the themes “Step Up” and “Light Up”. They aim to attract new connections and migrate existing users from low to mid-level speeds. The offers are again only temporary

There has again been a lot of discussion about the NBN in recent weeks. As we already discussed, there was the announcement by the Labor Party and in a separate development, The Guardian reported the cost blow outs of the NBN under the Coalition Government. In my analysis of the Labor plan, I mentioned that

A recent revelation published in The Guardian shows that the NBN is much more expensive than what the Coalition let us believe in 2013. The beginnings of the NBN date back to the Howard Government with Kevin Rudd in the Opposition seat. Around 2005, both Parties agreed that extra money was needed to ensure that

It seems Labor has bitten the bullet and decided that to have an overall better quality NBN, more money is needed to upgrade the Fibre-to-the-Node (FttN) to full-fibre. While the Government has indicated that the next stage of the NBN needs to be financed by NBN Co through private debt, Labor believes that this will

Rather conveniently, NBN Co has removed all forward financial projections beyond the next 12 months in its Corporate Plan for 2022, released last week. As I also mentioned when the Government released its financial results a few weeks ago, understanding how the company is really performing remains rather murky. The new corporate plan only adds

In August, NBN Co announced its financial results for the financial year ending 30 June 2021. It showed that it had activated 8.2 million customers. Interestingly they mentioned that this was on target — returning $4.6 billion of revenues and an improved net loss of $3.8 billion. But as I have also mentioned in previous

There is never a dull moment in the NBN saga, with the following happening over the last few weeks: NBN executives paid themselves $77 million in bonuses; construction staff went on strike as they missed out on proper payments and are also frustrated with the inefficiencies of the rollout activities; NBN Co announced it will

The new Biden Administration in the USA laid out a $100 billion proposal for broadband investment as part of its $2 trillion+  infrastructure plan. Under the proposal, the plan is to provide national broadband coverage. The Administration will use better competition measures, such a price transparency, the use of public utility infrastructure and subsidies for

For more than a decade – dating back to the original NBN plan from the Labor Government – the retail service providers (RSPs) have argued against the unpredictable variable elements in its wholesale charges (the so-called connectivity virtual charges or CVCs). We have covered this at length in previous articles going back at least to

Recently TPG announced its full-year results. Like many others in the industry, the company saw a decline in profits and like others, TPG also claimed that on COVID-19. But under the motto “never waste a good crisis”, TPG has come up with a plan to save costs. As I have mentioned time and time again,

Over the last few weeks, we have seen several new announcements from NBN Co. The key announcements include: A payment of $3 billion to the Government as a repayment of their $19.5 billion investment; An extra 100,000 fibre-to-the-node (FttN) premises will be upgraded to fibre-to-the-premise (FttP) infrastructure; and A complex review of their already complex

It was astonishing to hear the news the Federal Government has set up the Regional Digital Tech Hub as part of their $220 million Stronger Digital Connect Package. It seemed like it would be great an infrastructure hub. But no it is just another website and a set of new brochures. Over the last 15

Over the last year, we have discussed the unsustainably high wholesale charges that NBN Co is raking in. They need this just to recoup the blowout of the investments in their second-rate multi-technology mix (MtM) infrastructure. The Government, following its election win in 2013, handpicked a new NBN team. They were favourable to their policies,

It is great to see that the Government is finally backflipping on its denial on fibre optic networks. It has announced a $3.5 billion plan to bring fibre deeper into the neighbourhoods. The overall costs of a full upgrade have been estimated at around $16 billion. What the Government plans to do is to bring

Early at the start of the pandemic, the Government allowed NBN Co to make 40 per cent more capacity available without an extra charge for this. This, of course, was widely welcomed by both the industry and the users. The core of the problem, however, is that this capacity is not available in a “normal

As with any large-scale project, you need a long-term vision on the investment that you are going to make. Once that vision is agreed upon, solid strategies need to be developed. Next is a careful design to ensure that what you have designed will work in practice. Only then are you going to start with

Are we building a mediocre NBN for the average user? Interesting new research conducted by the Bureau of Communications and Arts Research predicts that average Australian data consumption is set to quadruple by 2028, based on figures from 2018. But they also predict that peak bandwidth will grow less rapidly. In their words: ‘Bandwidth requirements

In a previous blog I addressed the issue of teleworking and e-health application in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also mentioned the impact that this will have on our telecommunications networks. This time I would like to go a little bit deeper into this. It is a no-brainer to predict that when schools

The original plans for the NBN were to build a high-speed residential broadband network that would be made available to the other telcos on a wholesale basis.  Corporate infrastructure was basically left out of the plan as these organisations were in general well serviced by competing networks. But wait there was a loophole. What exactly

I had an interesting discussion on the NBN with several long-term colleagues. What triggered this discussion – we have had many more of them in the past – was the latest results from the Ookla fixed broadband speed rankings. The downward trend that we have seen now for the last decade continues. Australia is now

Britain’s Labour Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn has promised a national fibre-to-home network for nine million homes in the UK to be completed by 2030 at a cost of £20 billion (AU$38 billion). In the same week, Australia’s Labor Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese made a similar promise regarding updating the current multi-mix technology national broadband network

While fixed-line telephony traffic and revenue are declining, the mobile broadband market is growing steadily. Fixed-line broadband on the copper network is also declining as fibre and fixed-wireless broadband services become more widely available, through the NBN’s multi-technology architecture, with its emphasis on VDSL with Fibre-to-the Node (FttN). In time, much of the voice traffic

The gloves are off now that Telstra has stopped using diplomatic language to savage the NBN. Its chairman stated that Telstra and its competitors could have built a better NBN at lower costs. It is, however, important to first go back to the original NBN — a fibre to the home network to 96 per

This is a message I received following my article in which I argue that the NBN pricing is widening the equality gap in relation to access to the NBN and thus also to the digital economy and digital society. When going back to the start of the NBN, now close to 15 years ago, the

Over the last decade, Australia has spent $5.5 billion on satellite and fixed wireless broadband services and another $650 million on mobile blackspots. After last year’s Regional Telecommunications Review, the Government earlier this year indicated another $220 million for mobile blackspots, money for digital inclusions projects and $60 million for a regional connectivity program. It

Since the Coalition Government has taken over the NBN back in 2013, we have seen the goalposts being changed nearly on an annual basis. It started soon after Malcolm Turnbull’s infamous announcement: “we will bring you the NBN for around $25 billion and deliver it in 2016”. The reality, of course, is that now in

After nearly a year of diplomatic comments on the need to change the wholesale price of the NBN, it looks like Telstra has had enough. On a media tour, CEO Andy Penn has made it now overly clear that the wholesale pricing structure of the NBN needs to be changed, in particular in the area

Recently the Minister made his first more in-depth public comments on various aspects of the NBN. The fact that the telecommunications industry had a sigh of relief when the new comms minister Paul Fletcher mentioned that the government would not sell the NBN to Telstra is an indication how low trust in politics has sunk

A call for the resignation of the NBN Board goes to the heart of the NBN issue. Why did we build the NBN? What was the original vision? And why was the government willing to invest? At the time this was seen as a national asset. The call for resignation was made by Commpete, the

It doesn’t come as a surprise that Labor’s plan for the NBN start with a full blown technical and financial review of the NBN. Labor’s  election plan for the NBN  was announced this morning  by the Shadow Minister for Communication Michelle Rowland. It is impossible to come up with any good strategy for the future

Over the last few months further information has come to light about the problems the NBN is facing and it is clear that the government will have to step in in order to address the mountain problems of the service. However, in all reality this will not happen till after the Federal Elections. The regular