NBN Co focuses on speed and reliability in Annual Service Improvement Plan

NBN Co today published its FY24 Annual Service Improvement Plan (ASIP), detailing a broad range of initiatives aimed at improving customers’ experience of the nbn^® network.

The company’s FY24 ASIP details eight initiatives directly focused on consistently and continually improving outcomes for customers. It forms an important part of nbn’s Special Access Undertaking (SAU) commitment to the ACCC, government, the industry and customers.

Each year, the ASIP framework will be used to document and measure nbn’s plans and execution of service improvement initiatives, with a focus on how these have materialised into qualitative and quantitative service improvement outcomes for residential and business customers.

NBN CO FY24 Annual Service Improvement Plan highlights:

• nbn is currently expanding Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) to more than 7.7 million homes and businesses, comprised of 3.5 million originally Fibre to the Node (FTTN) premises; 1.5 million originally Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) premises; 1.2 million FTTP brownfield premises and 1.5 million FTTP greenfield premises.
• Together with 2.5 million Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) premises in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane that have already been upgraded, nbn is on target to enable close to 10.2 million premises, or up to 90 per cent of Australian premises within the fixed line network footprint, to access the nbn Home Ultrafast speed tier, which is capable of achieving wholesale download speeds of 500 Mbps to close to 1 Gbps¹ (by the end of 2025).
• The program will also see the company upgrade the network for a projected 53,000 premises currently served by underperforming Fibre to the Node (FTTN) lines, enabling full fibre connections that will upgrade these premises to FTTP with no requirement for the customer to upgrade to a higher speed tier, unless they choose to. Eligible customers should be contacted by their Retail Service Provider.
• Upgrades to the nbn Fixed Wireless network, which are already well underway in regional and rural Australia will deliver access to faster download speeds² for over 750,000 eligible homes and businesses. This includes making 120,000 premises previously served by the nbn Sky Muster satellite network to be eligible to connect to the upgraded nbn Fixed Wireless network.
• By evolving the FTTP network via the delivery of a new platform called XGS-PON, nbn is enabling future products such as multi-gigabit residential and business services. Meanwhile, the HFC network will be modernised and transition to Distributed Access Architecture to meet increased speed and data demands, while delivering improved network reliability.
• RSPs and customers will see service benefits arising from the implementation of Enhanced Customer Service Delivery (ECSD), a multi-year program now in its second year, specifically focused on driving improvements and simplification across activations, network, and service assurance processes. Further enhancements to system interfaces are aimed at delivering reduction in service disruptions and customer effort through proactive detection and repair of performance issues.
• The nbn internal field workforce now comprises approximately 20 per cent of the company’s headcount. Regional customers will receive greater support with nbn increasing its field workforce by around 80 new roles, which aims to deliver high-quality, tailored services and faster connection of new orders and fault repairs.
• Commitment to automate network management operations supported by artificial intelligence, especially for fault resolution, with the aim of creating an ‘intelligent, self-healing network’.
   

Anna Perrin, Chief Customer Officer at NBN Co, said:

“The nbn network continues to be upgraded to meet the nation’s insatiable demand for data.

“One of the most exciting elements of our FY24 ASIP is our commitment to upgrade the access network for up to 53,000 underperforming FTTN connections to enable a full fibre connection, commencing with 22,000 premises that have recently become eligible for immediate upgrade.

“We have provided detailed lists of the first 22,000 eligible premises to customers’ respective Retail Service Providers. And we are simply asking retailers to make that call to let these customers know they are eligible for a full fibre upgrade; we will do the rest by rolling out fibre directly to these homes and businesses.

“Once we have upgraded these homes and businesses, these customers will be able to take full advantage of the significant network capability enhancement on offer, with greater network reliability and access to faster speeds³ supporting customers with their vocational, educational, entertainment, healthcare, and general internet connectivity needs.

“The Annual Service Improvement Plan should provide confidence for Retail Service Providers who partner with us to deliver broadband services, for Service Delivery Partners who support us in the field to upgrade technologies and support customers, and for households and businesses who are the ultimate beneficiaries of a fast, secure and reliable network.

“Every year, we will be accountable for our detailed commitments. And we will continue to lift the bar to deliver the social and economic benefits that come from ubiquitous access to secure, reliable, high-speed broadband connectivity as we deliver on our promise to lift the digital capability of Australia.”

nbn’s FY24 Annual Service Improvement Plan is available to view or download. 

Important Notes

¹ Regardless of the retail service you purchase, the actual speeds delivered by NBN Co’s highest wholesale speed tiers of 500 Mbps to close to 1000 Mbps will be less than 1 Gbps due to equipment and network limitations and the peak information rate may fall anywhere in this range. In addition, the HFC Home Ultrafast bandwidth profile downstream service provided to retail providers is a ranged profile with a maximum sustained information rate of 750 Mbps. Reference to speeds are not end user speeds; they are wholesale layer 2 peak information rate bandwidth provided to retail service providers. An end customer’s experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn® network, depends on some factors outside NBN Co’s control (like equipment quality, software, and how their retail service provider designs its network) and the NBN Co technology used for their connection.

² For nbn Fixed Wireless, an end customer’s experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn® network, depends on whether they are using the internet during the busy period, and some factors outside NBN Co’s control (like the end customer’s equipment quality, software, broadband plans, signal reception and how their service provider designs its network). Speeds may be impacted by the number of concurrent users, including during busy periods.

³ For full fibre, an end customer’s experience, including speed, depends on their internet provider, plan, equipment quality and if they use the internet at peak times.