Taxus Baccata

by | Mar 15, 2018 | Taxus Baccata

How Can We Help?
You are here:
< Back
Not to be confused with NBN (TV station).

NBN Co Limited, known as simply nbn, is a state-owned corporation of the Australian Government, tasked to design, build and operate Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) as the nation's wholesale broadband provider. The corporation reports to two shareholder ministers: the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Communications.[3]

History

NBN Co was established on 9 April 2009 under the name of its company number, "A.C.N. 136 533 741 Limited".[4] After the establishment, the Australian Government started referring to the company as "National Broadband Network Company",[5] which became the de facto company name. It was officially named "NBN Co Limited" on 6 October 2009.[6][7][8][9] It traded as "NBN Co" until 26 April 2015 when it began trading simply as "nbn".[10]

In 2019, NBN Co announced that by May 2020[11] retail service providers will be able to pool all their connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) bandwidth nationally.

In February 2020, the company announced that 6.7 million homes and businesses were connected to a plan over the nbn access network – compared with 4.9 million in February 2019.[12]

NBN Co developed a satellite internet program named Sky Muster aimed at rural areas. As of July 2023, $620 million had been invested.[13] However, the program experienced fierce competition from Starlink satellites. Sky Muster consists of two geosynchronous satellites orbiting over 35,000 km above Earth's surface, resulting in latency times around 600 ms (at 25 Mbps), compared to Starlink's latency of below 40 ms (for 100-200 Mbps).[14]

In February 2017, Bill Morrow (former CEO) stated that there is no significant demand for wired connections above 25 Mbit/s and consideration of upgrading the network will not be undertaken until demand for high-bandwidth services is proven.[15]

In August 2019, Stephen Rue (CEO), announced the completion of the $51 billion National Broadband Network by June 2020.[16] However, some service areas were still being rolled out in late 2020/2021 with FTTP to FTTN/FTTC premises.

On 6th May 2024, CEO Stephen Rue announced his departure from the company to take the CEO position at Optus.

NBN and retail service providers

The NBN network, at 2022, draws together wired communication (copper, optical and hybrid fibre-coaxial) and radio communication (satellite and fixed wireless networks) at 121 points of interconnect typically located in Telstra owned telephone exchanges throughout Australia. NBN Co{{Clarify}} also sells access for mobile telecommunication backhaul to mobile telecommunications providers.[17]

As a wholesale provider of broadband access through its level two networks, NBN provides broadband access predominantly to retail service providers (RSPs); these businesses on sell access to end users; both residential and business customers to access the internet.

At 30 June 2016, Telstra had 45.5%, TPG group had 24.8% and Optus had 12.4% of all end users connecting to the NBN.[18]

There has been a significant failure of the NBN to deliver nominal performance to end users. There has been contention between RSPs and NBN on the reasons for this. Bill Morrow, then CEO of NBN Co, admitted in 2017 that 15% of end users received a poor service through the NBN and were 'seriously dissatisfied'.[19] In addition, Morrow indicated that, at July 2017, prices and performance for end users were suppressed through a 'price war' between RSPs.[20][21]

Contractual arrangements

NBN Co contracts mainly with RSPs to provide wholesale broadband access, with limited supply of backhaul to other organisations (for example providing backhaul services to Vodafone).[17]

References

  1. ^ "NBN Co Limited". Australian Government Directory. Australian Government. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e NBN Co (September 2023). "nbn Annual Report FY2023" (PDF). Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  3. ^ NBN Co. NBN Co Annual Report 2010 (PDF) (Report). NBN Co. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  4. ^ NBN Co Limited, National names index, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, archived from the original on 9 October 2011, retrieved 2 June 2011
  5. ^ LeMay, Renai; Tindal, Suzanne (7 April 2009), NBN company established, looks for CEO, ZDNet, retrieved 1 June 2011
  6. ^ LeMay, Renai (7 October 2009), It's official: 'NBN Co. Ltd' is the name, ZDNet, retrieved 1 June 2011
  7. ^ Beer, Stan (7 April 2009), NBN to make 49% up for grabs but who wants it?, iTWire, archived from the original on 3 April 2011, retrieved 1 June 2011
  8. ^ Tindal, Suzanne (1 May 2009), NBN company constitution revealed, ZDNet, retrieved 1 June 2011
  9. ^ LeMay, Renai (30 April 2009), NBN company details hard to find, ZDNet, retrieved 1 June 2011
  10. ^ Ramli, David (25 April 2015), "NBN Co spends $700,000 to drop 'Co'", Sydney Morning Herald, retrieved 27 April 2015
  11. ^ "NBN Co to allow internet providers to pool CVC nationally". iTnews. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  12. ^ "NBNco progress Updated February 2020".
  13. ^ "NBN aims to match Elon Musk's Starlink but may have to write off $620m". Australian Financial Review. 5 July 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  14. ^ Biggs, Tim (7 July 2023). "Telstra's Starlink deal could signal a new era of connectivity in hard-to-reach places". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  15. ^ Lucy Battersby, 1 March 2017 Gigabit per second speeds aren't needed yet, NBN Co boss Bill Morrow says, The Age. Retrieved 1 March 2017
  16. ^ Ryan, Peter (15 August 2019). "NBN chief rejects suggestions the project is a 'cut-price lemon', says it will be complete by mid-2020". ABC News. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  17. ^ a b Rohan Pearce, (3 February 2017), Vodafone first telco to use NBN for mobile coverage boost, Computerworld. Retrieved 9 March 2017
  18. ^ Ry Crozier, (22 September 2016), Three ISPs take 83 percent of NBN market, itnews. Retrieved 4 August 2017
  19. ^ Michael Smith & Tony Boyd, (24 July 2017), NBN to review pricing as part of image problem fix, Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 25 July 2017
  20. ^ Nick Whigham, (28 July 2017), NBN embarks on charm offensive to address confusion and complaints, news.com.au. Retrieved 29 July 2017
  21. ^ Ry Crozier, (31 July 2017), NBN Co boss declares war with internet providers: Blames ISPs for performance problems, ITNews. Retrieved 31 July 2017
Categories
Table of Contents