NBN Co to upgrade 53,000 underperforming FTTN users to fibre

NBN Co plans to upgrade some 53,000 premises with underperforming fibre-to-the-node connections to full fibre by mid next year.

The target is contained in the company’s first service improvement plan [pdf], a new document it has to produce annually to meet obligations under the new special access undertaking (SAU).

NBN Co has only sporadically revealed over the years how many premises in its fixed-line footprint are incapable of 25Mbps peak download speeds, the minimum standard for line speed that was set back in 2016.

The last real update was in mid-2021 when the number was 119,000 premises; NBN Co repeatedly avoided providing the figure after that but said the issue would persist beyond 2022 - which it clearly did.

Just how many underperforming services exist is still unknown but it’s at least 53,000, since NBN Co expects to upgrade that many premises to full fibre connections by the end of FY24, which ends June 30 next year.

“NBN Co plans to overbuild the access network for an estimated 53,000 underperforming copper lines by the end of FY24, making fibre speeds available to end users at these premises,” the company said.

The 53,000 premises are in FTTN areas being overbuilt with a new fibre access network, under a multi-billion dollar program called ‘Fibre Connect’.

For most NBN users in overbuild areas, they will need to order a minimum 100Mbps plan and commit for at least a year, in order to qualify for their FTTN connection to be replaced with fibre.

However, NBN Co intends to make some backend changes so that the upgrades will occur automatically for the most part for customers with underperforming services.

“The service class for single dwelling FTTN services in the FTTP upgrade footprint that cannot attain 25/5 Mbps will be addressed proactively,” NBN Co said.

“This means that NBN Co plans to progressively change the service class of these lines so that end users are not required to order a higher speed tier at these premises in order to connect to the FTTP network. 

“This will be applicable to premises with an underperforming line irrespective of whether the end user has an active service or is placing a new connection order. 

“Connection to the network will still be subject to end users/RSPs [retail service providers] placing an order for the relevant FTTP service or – where applicable – NBN Co determining in response to an assurance ticket that migration to the FTTP network is the appropriate solution for the premises.”

The company has earmarked Q3 of FY24 - January to March 2024 - for the “proactive identification of individual FTTN underperforming lines within the FTTP footprint.” 

“The objective is to proactively and progressively change the service class of these customers to enable a simpler and quicker migration to FTTP, improving the end user experience and service performance,” it said.

The action plan confirms suspicions by Optus that NBN Co was delaying essential remediation work on underperforming lines until it was in a position to replace the connection entirely.

That strategy, according to Optus, had left some customers with open tickets for remediation work for more than 18 months.

The issue of underperforming services has continued despite the network being declared "built and fully operational" at the end of 2020.