Almost half a million Australian premises are getting faster broadband as NBN Co dramatically extends its fibre to the curb (FttC) network and prepares to resume the troubled HFC cable rollout.
An additional 440,000 homes and businesses around the country will now benefit from fibre running to the end of their driveway, only relying on copper phone lines to cover the last few metres into the building. This offers a significant speed boost compared to fibre to the node (FttN) which can rely on copper for the last few hundred metres.
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Around 340,000 of these 440,000 premises had been earmarked to connect to NBN Co's HFC cable network acquired from Telstra. The remaining 100,000 were previously relegated to FttN connections over long copper lines which would have made it impossible for them to access the NBN's high speed tiers.
Also known as fibre to the distribution point, FttC significantly outperforms FttN but is still technically inferior to fibre to the premises (FttP). FttP runs fibre into the building and completely eliminates the copper line but is more expensive to install. Under the Labor government, NBN initially planned to roll out FttP to 93 per cent of Australian premises with the remainder relying on fixed wireless or satellite.
Under the Coalition government's Multi-Technology Mix, introduced by then Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, NBN added FttN to the mix and decided to retain the metro-centric HFC cable networks. NBN originally planned to completely infill HFC suburbs, going back to connect every home which was overlooked by the Telstra cable rollout.
NBN chief Bill Morrow later revealed that it would only infill the HFC network in areas where there is already high take up, relegating other homes in HFC suburbs to FttN. This was still the plan when Morrow launched FttC trials back in 2016, according to Morrow, even though today those premises are still earmarked for HFC on the NBN rollout map.
Around 70 per cent of the 340,000 premises now switching across from HFC to FttC are in HFC infill areas. It is unclear how many of them were actually destined for FttN rather than cable.
While initially limited to 300,000 premises, the FttC rollout was expanded in 2016 after NBN abandoned plans to incorporate the poorly-performing Optus HFC cable network; shifting across another 700,000 premises to FttC.
![More premises will be connected by fibre to the kerb.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180418065353im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/h/0/v/z/9/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.p4z8nw.png/1523394522195.jpg)
The latest expansion will now see 1.5 million homes and businesses relying on FttC when the nationwide network is complete in 2020. The NBN rollout map will be updated later this month to reveal which premises are now moving to fibre to the curb.
The troubled HFC rollout remains on hold as NBN works to upgrade the cable network it acquired from Telstra, with plans to resume connecting homes in late April.
"We are pleased with the improvements seen from the additional work undertaken while sales have been paused on the HFC network," Morrow says. "We expect to see an uplift in customer experience as a result of these improvements."
The further expansion of the FttC footprint is not intended to replace poorly-performing sections of the Telstra HFC network, even though NBN's engineers have deemed only half the cable network as "high-performing"; primarily in areas with a high number of existing cable connections.
These high-performing HFC areas will be declared Ready to Connect first when NBN resumes the sale of wholesale services to internet retailers from April 27, starting with 1000 premises in Melbourne and Sydney. This will ramp up to 40,000 by the end of June, in major cities across the country, and reach around 100,000 premises per month in July, with around 2.5 million premises now destined to rely on the HFC network.
The expansion of the FttC network is a win for Australian consumers, says telecommunications analyst Paul Budde.
"Any addition to fibre to the curb is a great improvement as this makes it very easy to update the last bit from the street to the house if so needed by the people themselves. We see that in some countries, people pay the extra $300 to $500 for a full fibre to the home connection," Budde says.
"Unfortunately this doesn't do anything for most of the millions of premises connected to FttN, which are the real problem areas. The HFC network that fibre to the curb replaces covers, in general, premises that already had a better connection than FttN."
Former CEO of Internet Australia, Laurie Patton, also welcomed the FttC expansion.
"On the one hand that’s good news for those lucky punters," Patton says.
"What about all the unhappy NBN customers now stuck with FttN and no sign they’ll get this improved service? We are just entrenching the digital divide."
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