Australia - Broadband - FttH Greenfield Market

Since 2007 Australia has seen a dramatic rise in the number of fibre-to-the-home operators, and by early 2011 they had connected more than 20,000 households. The deployment of fibre-to-the-home in greenfield estates is a dramatically-growing industry; but while the design of a fibre solution can be seen as a rather simple task, having it designed correctly and then operated effectively with long-term success is quite a different matter. By 2013 more than 250,000 new households are expected to be deployed by greenfield fibre estates.

Currently in Australia and New Zealand there are more than a dozen major different fibre-to-the-home operators with various levels of experience and capability. In 2011 new legislation was passed by Parliament that will see all new major housing sites either supplied with fibre-to-the-home networks or being made ready (pit and pipe) for easy deployment of that infrastructure by mid-2011.

This resulted in a change of direction for the industry. NBN Co became the operator of last resort for those developments where a commercial solution is not economic viable. However, this situation could possibly lead to a conflict of interest between NBN Co and the rest of the industry.

In this report we analyse the new situation and also provide an overview of the operators. Some statistics on the fibre-to-the-home market are also provided in the report.