300 homes to test nbn's HFC pilot

300 premises and four service providers in Queensland are to be part of a pilot program testing hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) technology, according to an announcement by nbn.

The commencement of the pilot follows the company's disclosure of the suburbs that will receive HFC in its new three-year construction plan, which was released last month.

nbn said the premises in Redcliffe would test the HFC connection process and customer experience.

The nbn Corporate Plan estimates that around four million premises — or around one-third of Australian homes and business — will receive high-speed broadband via HFC, which is expected to be released as a commercial product to wholesale partners by early 2016.

The HFC pilot was announced as part of nbn's first quarter results briefing, which also disclosed a revenue of $73 million from July to 30 September, an increase of more than 150% versus the same quarter last year.

Total operating expenses, however, almost doubled to $409 million, compared to $281 million in Q1 last year, as the rollout picked up pace.

The company's total loss for the period came in at $587 million, as opposed to $414 million in Q1 last year.

nbn CFO Stephen Rue reportedly said the organisation's biggest costs were in relation to the disconnection and migration of users from both the Telstra and Optus networks.

Image courtesy of nbn

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