NBN reaches 2m connections

The NBN has passed the milestone of 2 million premises connected, meaning the project is a quarter of the way towards the goal of having 8 million connections by 2020.

Currently retail service providers are connecting more than 28,000 end users to the network per week. The NBN meanwhile now passes 4.5 million premises, up from 1.3 million premises in March last year.

nbn has attributed the faster rollout pace to the addition of fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) to the technology mix — the company said over 670,000 premises connected to its network in the 18 months since launch.

But the reliance on ageing copper technology for the ‘last mile’ connections between the premise and the node in FTTN configurations will mean this technology will need to eventually be replaced in the future, adding to the ultimate costs and time required for the rollout.

nbn has set a target of reaching the halfway point of the network build by the middle of the year and being three-quarters of the way through within a further 12 months.

“In May last year we had one million consumers and business owners connected to services over the nbn network; now less than 12 months later, we’ve activated another one million,” nbn CEO Bill Morrow said.

“This great achievement is a testament to the hard work of our people and delivery partners building the network at pace. Importantly, the two million activations milestone has been made possible through the support, marketing and customer focus from retail service providers.”

Image courtesy of Steve Bittinger under CC

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook