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back to article NBN predicts a million premises next year

NBN users are data-hungry beasts, and while the move from early-adopter to mainstream is expanding the number of users on lower-speed plans, around two-thirds of the 210,000 connected customers are on speeds above 25 Mbps. Announcing its annual results today, NBN Co's presentation slides show that nearly 20 per cent of its …

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  1. John Tserkezis

    "NBN opponents who pointed to low take-up rates in the early stages of the network will be somewhat confounded"

    Not at all. We're still waiting with no timetable on the horizon, in metropolitan Sydney. It appears the "haves" and "have nots" are highly selective areas with more political clout than anything else.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Probably has something to do with them being forced back to the design board for FTTN just as the FTTP roll out was gaining traction. EIther way it was going to be a 10 year build someone had to go first and someone has to go last.

      you could be stuck in south ACT with the choice between adsl, adsl and over congested 3g a mere 40km from the CBD

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        As much as that! ; )

        "ACT with the choice between adsl, adsl and over congested 3g a mere 40km from the CBD"

        National Capital aside, I'm just 15km from a major capital city CBD and have nothing but adsl (if you can get it) and 3g.

        I'd sign up for the NBN in a heartbeat, if I could.

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      2. Fluffy Bunny
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        Angel

        Nothing wrong with ADSL. You try living in Gungahlin - pair gain rules. That's why it had to be put in early. The rest of Canberra has a choice of either ADSL or Transact, which is quite good, really.

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        1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
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          Not all of the rest of Canberra gets to choose TransACT.

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  2. Fluffy Bunny
    Holmes

    Major failure

    Let's get this clear:

    "NBN users are data-hungry beasts...NBN customers, the outfit claims, use between 62 and 75 GB per month" and "which is well ahead of consumption on any of Australia's other broadband networks"

    ...That's not data hungry. Data hungry is 500GB per month on ADSL. Or try downloading over 4GB through a 56kbps dial-up connection. If I gave somebody a 25Mbps connection and they only downloaded 62GB, I would take it away again. They obviously aren't serious enough.

    "210,000 connected customers" This is probably meant to be an admission that most of the people don't need the extra speed. That's why they aren't signing up. Let's see... one million premises passed, only 210,000 take it up - that's approximately 20%.

    "its asset base also grew in that time on the basis of rising capex."

    - What this means is that NBN is sitting on top of a giganitic asset worth tens of billions and only earning $50m. What was the return on investment? This company desperately needs to be auditted.

    "The network claims a $AU37 average revenue per user (ARPU)."

    - ahh, now I see why it is such a loss-making endeavour. Why don't they try billing their customers the real cost of providing a gold-plated service?

    We spent tens of billions on this monumental failure. It's time to pull the pin.

    1 1 Reply
    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
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      Re: Major failure

      Please tell me you're not misinterpreting those average consumption figures.

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    2. mathew42
      Reply Icon

      Re: Major failure

      > If I gave somebody a 25Mbps connection and they only downloaded 62GB, I would take it away again. They obviously aren't serious enough.

      This comment is the exact reason that the Liberals are able to justify FTTN. If your main usage is a HD video conference twice a month, you need the high speed, but not the data consumption. Fast speeds enable activities that simply aren't possible with slow speeds.

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      1. aberglas
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        Re: Major failure

        Video conference works very well at 2mbs. No need for 25 or 100 mbs. But you do need reasonable upload speeds, not the 0.4 mbs artificially capped by Telstra unless there is competition at the exchange.

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    3. Arbiter
      Reply Icon

      500G over ADSL

      That's exactly the contract I have. I used Telstra because there is exactly one option where I live, contrary to the opinions of the telemarketers claiming they can give me better options (I find it's quicker to pretend to buy and let them work it out themselves than to argue with them).

      My consumption is highly variable, wandering from 70GB to about 400GB depending on... let's just say it's seasonal. Coming changes are likely to inhibit my interest, and when that happens I doubt I will ever use more than 100GB in a month. Nevertheless, I would really like low latency and high transfer speed, because it makes a hell of a difference for telecommuting.

      For the man in the street, in the absence of entertainment torrents high speeds and large volumes are simply not useful.

      Quite apart from this, government interference and corporate greed are the reason the nerd in the street hasn't strung his own short haul high speed cables. If every house had a gigabit cable to the each of the neighbours we'd have a network you couldn't bring down with nuke, and no one would have to pay for anything but the hardware and a little electricity. Instead we have a physical hierarchy that can be disrupted by a single backhoe, for no other reason than to allow the installation of tollbooths, supported by the government because they get a cut.

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  3. southen bastard

    No matter how much it costs now, it will cost far, orders of magantude more to do it in the future.

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  4. JJKing

    Oh wow, they are getting "90 Mbps down and 28 Mbps up" in their fttn trials. It still means I am going to get diddley shit speeds over the 0.4 copper, err aluminium connection to my house AND it is something I will be stuck with for a very long time because it will be too expensive to upgrade it.

    This FTTH/FTTP rollout was supposed to future proof Australian telecommunication/IT network. Instead we get so many tossers bleating about how 25mbps is more than enough and why does anyone need more. Look forward several years and imagine what may be possible. If you luddites can't do that then look back. I am sure your lack of foresight predecessors would have said that one phone line to a business is more than enough and what do you need a phone to the house for? With that attitude we would still be driving around with a person walking in front of the horseless carriage carrying a lantern to warn others of the high speed vehicle approaching.

    We had a couple of HUNDRED THOUSAND users sign a petition to the inventor of the Internet in Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, and he refused to even consider; dismissed it out of hand. However he had to have SIX NBN reviews until he got one from his hand-picked bum boys that suited his slant on how fibre was a waste of money.

    If I make a massive mistake (maybe not even that big) at work, I GET FIRED. politians make a mistake that cost the taxpayer BILLIONS of dollars and they just get a massive pension indexed against inflation FOR LIFE.

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