NBN now reaches 2 million premises, so when will you get connected?
Just 44.94% of the people who can connect have done so.
The Q3 results for nbnco, the company building the National Broadband Network (NBN), show that there are now more than 2 million premises which can connect to the NBN, up from 1.7 million three months before. However, less than half of those overall have actually seen customers sign up.
The table below shows the number of active premises and actual uptake for each of the four services available under NBN's multi-technology mix approach. The most popular option is satellite, where almost three-quarters of potential customers have connected. NBN's interim satellite service is due to be switched off and replaced with the more powerful Sky Muster service; you can check out a roundup of the main locations which can already connect to that in our roundup.
| Technology | Customers March 2016 | Premises March 2016 | % takeup |
|---|---|---|---|
| FTTP | 725,071 | 1,287,581 | 56.31% |
| Fixed Wireless | 99,455 | 369,970 | 26.88% |
| Satellite | 34,869 | 48,000 | 72.64% |
| FTTN | 43,553 | 303,708 | 14.34% |
| Total | 902,948 | 2,009,259 | 44.94% |
The most widely deployed option remains fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), but just over 56% of available connections have been taken up. Fixed wireless is even less popular, and the relatively new fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) option has only been taken up by 14.34% of potential customers. Those numbers are likely to change as existing services are gradually switched off. The long-term goal for the NBN is to serve 8 million premises by 2020.
nbnco also confirmed that HFC services on the pay TV network will become commercially available from next month.
You can check on when NBN services are due to roll out in your area using finder's NBN tracker.
