Users of the National Broadband Network (NBN) that live or work within multi-dwelling units can stop being excited about an upgrade path for the near future, as the company's upgrade plans announced on Wednesday morning[1] do not take that technology into account.
"Fibre to the basement is not addressed in this plan, but I assure you regardless of that, the company ... continues to look at ways that all our networks can have greater capability in the future," NBN CEO Stephen Rue told ZDNet.
Speaking to journalists while launching the NBN 2021 corporate plan, Rue said the on-demand upgrade plans were previously planned to begin when NBN became cashflow positive[2] on the other side of 2023, but he would not be drawn on whether it would be to the same scale as its new plan.
"I can't tell you what we would have put forward as our corporate plan if COVID hadn't existed. But I can tell you that with the onset of COVID, there's absolutely no doubt that more people are working from home, and educating, and going to doctors, and have the opportunity to live in different locations around Australia," he told ZDNet.
"We are still looking to, obviously, invest further in the network out of cash flow positive outcomes in the future, but what we are simply doing is bringing forward some of that by borrowing against those future cashflows."
It is expected that the first fibre-to-the-node (FttN) users will be able to order upgrades in the second half of next year.
The corporate plan projects brownfields fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) connections to increase from 900,000 currently to 1.3 million at