NBN Co to receive $2.4 billion to extend FTTN overbuild

The government has kept its pre-election pledge to back NBN Co with another $2.4 billion so that the network builder can replace more copper-based services with fibre.

NBN Co last night “welcomed the government’s commitment to invest $2.4 billion to roll out more fibre to communities across Australia.”

Labor said in November last year that it would fund an extra 1.5 million homes and businesses in the fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) footprint to be upgraded to fibre-to-the-premises. (FTTP).

The FTTN overbuild program started under the previous government, with Labor pledging to extend it so that a deeper overbuild was possible.

The government likened the work to a "repair job" for the NBN, which was originally specified as a mostly fibre-based network before being built out using multiple access technologies, including copper.

Of the 1.5 million FTTN premises, 660,000 are in regional Australia, the government said.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the $2.4 billion would come in the form of an "equity investment over four years in the 2022-23 federal budget."

NBN Co said it would announce where it would now extend its overbuild of FTTN “in coming months”.

The extra premises would be “able to order a higher speed service by the end of 2025.”

Customers will still need to place an order for a service of 100Mbps or greater in order to qualify for a fibre-based service.

“We welcome the government’s additional $2.4 billion investment in the NBN,” NBN Co CEO Stephen Rue said in a statement.

“Fibre is inherently more capable of delivering faster upload and download speeds, is generally more reliable than copper connections and reduces our maintenance and operating costs."

Rue added the government commitment "allows us to set a goal of enabling around 10 million premises, or up to 90 percent of homes and businesses on the fixed line network, to access [the] highest residential speed tiers with wholesale download speeds of 500 Mbps to close to 1Gbps by the end of 2025.”