NBN hits 2 million premises milestone, expects to reach half-way point by mid-year

By Geoff Long

NBN has hit a new milestone, with 2 million homes and businesses now connected to the network, of a total of 4.5 million premises that can order a retail service over the network. With the two millionth premises activated, NBN is now one quarter of the way towards its stated goal of connecting eight million homes and businesses by 2020. NBN CEO Bill Morrow noted that in May last year the firm had activated one million premises, with the latest million milestone achieved in under 12 months.

“This great achievement is a testament to the hard work of our people and delivery partners building the network at pace. Importantly, the two million activations milestone has been made possible through the support, marketing and customer focus from retail service providers,” Morrow commented.

The network builder also reported that currently retailers are connecting more than 28,000 end users to NBN services each week, up from 12,000 per week this time last year. It said the FTTN rollout had helped increase activation rates, with more than 670,000 premises now connected to FTTN services 18 months since launch. The 4.5 million premises that can order a service is up by 1.3 million premises since March last year.

NBN expects to reach the halfway point of the network build around the middle of this year and within a further 12 months, it expects to be three quarters of the way towards its 2020 goal

(This article first appeared in www.commsday.com)