Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann

The 2017 nbn Corporate Plan released today shows that Australia’s most comprehensive infrastructure project is maturing rapidly and is on track to deliver high-speed broadband access to all Australian homes and businesses by 2020. 

Providing access as quickly and affordably as possible will ensure all Australians have access to high-speed broadband that will drive new approaches to how we work, connect, learn, conduct business and access health services. 

Compared to last year’s Corporate Plan forecasts, nbn’s peak funding estimate has remained stable at $49 billion. 

Reflecting an excellent year of progress which saw fibre-to-the-node (FTTN), hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) and SkyMuster satellite services launched, the company was able to exceed its financial and rollout targets while carrying forward almost $400 million in unspent Government equity. The company has now built more than a quarter of the network and over three million homes and businesses can order a service.

The Corporate Plan builds on the recently released annual results that shows that by 30 June 2016, the company:

• met its annual fixed line and fixed wireless rollout targets ahead of time
• more than doubled its revenue from $164 to $421 million, with revenue expected to more than double again in 2016-17 to about $900 million, and
• exceeded its total customer connection forecast by almost 144,000, with almost 1.1 million active users.

Since switching on last September, the FTTN activation rate has grown from 1,000 services connected in the first 51 days to over 2,700 per working day in the past week. 

nbn will further accelerate the network build over the next two financial years, with 78 per cent of the network expected to be completed by June 2018 and 4.4 million services connected. 

Earlier this year nbn launched services on its Sky Muster satellite. This service is now delivering high-speed broadband to more than 18,000 Australians in regional and remote areas. nbn’s second satellite, Sky Muster II, is set to launch in October 2016. 

As part of this partnership, the Government has updated its Statement of Expectations for nbn, to guide the company through to the completion of the project, with an increasing emphasis on the operation of the network that is more than one quarter complete.

The updated Statement of Expectations highlights several priorities for nbn, including operating commercially, maintaining fiscal discipline, proactively working with stakeholders, managing risks and continuing transparency measures. 

The 2017 Corporate Plan leverages the substantial progress the company has made over the past two years to reset contractor relationships and scale its information technology and business process systems. 

Risks and mitigation plans for the network are outlined in the Corporate Plan, and the narrowed peak funding range takes these into account. The company continues to include a contingency, as a prudent measure to manage a project of this size and complexity. 

The 2017 nbn Corporate Plan is available at: www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/about-nbn-co/corporate-plan/corporate-plan.html 

The Statement of Expectations is available at: www.communications.gov.au/nbnstatementofexpectations