NBN Co gives first sign its FTTC targets are achievable

NBN Co has given its first signs that its FY19 activation target for fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) premises is achievable, hitting just under 20 percent of that target after the first quarter.

The latest quarterly numbers release [pdf] by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) shows there were 39,204 active FTTC connections as at September 30.

This is well up on the 3977 active FTTC users as at June 30, and provides some hope that the network builder is turning its problems around in that part of the build.

The trends within the FTTC numbers show that Telstra and TPG are continuing to dominate sign-ups across almost all access technologies.

Together, they typically have between 70 percent and 80 percent of all active connections between them.

NBN Co admitted last month that the FTTC build had turned out more complex than hoped, and that it was looking to delivery partners to recover lost ground in the pace of the FTTC rollout.

That pace was made clear in August when NBN Co missed its FTTC rollout numbers by almost half in the FY18 financial year.

In response, NBN Co reshuffled its FTTC targets in the most recent corporate plan.

It now hopes to make 500,000 FTTC premises ready for service this year (for a total of 700,000), with 200,000 activated.

Though it is still tracking slightly under pace on the activations number, making up lost ground looks achievable, particularly if premises are released for sale in greater numbers.

Vodafone emerges

The ACCC’s new data release provides the first glimpse of where Vodafone is achieving some success in its entry into fixed line services.

Vodafone has 1283 fibre-to-the-basement services and 493 fibre-to-the-curb services.

It may have other unlisted services on its books, where the numbers would be too few to breach ACCC reporting thresholds.

The ACCC numbers also show it is still slow going for the HFC portion of the network, with just 24,157 new HFC lines activated between July and September this year.

The low numbers were apparent in telco’s financial reports where they continued to blame the slow recovery for NBN revenue woes.