NBN update 2018.
The best news is the early arrival of FTTC that will allow vastly increased speeds both up and download without a price hike.
Introduced to a trial 200,000 customers throughout NSW and Victoria FTTC showed that speed deterioration is a thing of the past.
In Fact, speeds off up to a gigabyte will be available on the technology.
What does it all mean
What is the difference between the current FTTN service?
Fibre to the node service uses fibre to the node but then copper wire to your premises. This copper connection dramatically slows the speed at a distance over 400 meters which is experienced by many of us now.
The new system still uses the node network but adds a fibre link to the front of your driveway. The only copper is from there to your computer. This means no slow down of the service and the 100Mbps maximum speed available to any connection.
Evidently, new cost parameters have made a jump in technology more available to the consumers. This is really exciting stuff as it moves our connection technology into a new era.
The growth of the network
Furthermore, the growth of connections continues to increase with 95% of households and businesses in design, construction or ready for connection said NBN CEO bill Morrow in a recent statement.
NBN grew their revenue from $403 million in the year ending December 2017 to $ 891 million for 2018 a handy figure indeed.
There are reportedly 6.1 million premises ready to connect and in December 2017 around 3.4 million paying customers.
Downsides include the HFC network plans still in technology trials as they try to work a fix. This will affect many subscribers who used the old Optus or Foxtel network as they are unable to connect until the problems are resolved.
FTTC is being considered as an option to replace the ageing HFC
Infrastructure
In Conclusion, I believe that NBN is happy with the performance to date. They are also confident that they can achieve that 2020 destination target.
Finally, we will keep you posted if they will go back to the FTTN customers and start an upgrade path to have us all on FTTC.
Peter Hanley
