Australia - National Broadband Network - FttN and VDSL

1. Synopsis

2. Statistical overviews

2.1 FttN in NBN's FY Results 2016

2.2 FttN vs FttH take-up

2.3 Analysis - High-speed broadband take-up is increasing

2.4 FttN overview 2014-2018

3. Telstra aims at 1 million NBN market share

4. G.Fast

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Analysis - NBN's not.so.Fast' G.Fast

5. The VDSL Market

5.1 VDSL developments

5.2 VDSL vectoring

5.2.1 Telstra

6. VDSL infrastructure analysis

6.1 FTTN modelling results

6.2 The aesthetics of the cabinets

6.3 Reliability and performance of the cabinets

6.4 Issues in relation to savings coming from sharing infrastructure

6.5 The risk of short-circuiting

7. Fibre-to-the-Distribution-Point (FTTDP)

7.1 Remains on the agenda of NBN

7.2 Analysis of FTTdp

7.3 NBN company needs support to pursue FTTdp

8. Strategic Analysis

8.1 Video explosion pushing fixed broadband

8.2 Computer transactions, not people, are driving the need for all-fibre networks

8.3 NBN telecoms or digital infrastructure a SAU question

9. Related reports

Table 1 FttN expenditure 2014-2016

Table 2 NBN uptake rates FttH and FttN

Table 3 FttN Roll Out 2014-2018 (cumulative (000)

Table 4 FttN - Weighted average cost per premise by technology (rounded nearest $100)

Table 5 Capex and Opex savings for different network sharing deployment models

Exhibit 1 - Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL)

Australia - National Broadband Network - FttN and VDSL

In April 2014 the government formally opted for the NBN to provide a multi-technology mix rather than be predominantly FttH. Under the new scheme, FttH will connect 20% of premises by 2020, while a further 38% will be served by FttN - using the VDSL technology - and another 34% of will receive services via existing HFC networks. Using this approach, the government anticipated that 91% of premises connected to fixed-line infrastructure would receive 50Mb/s by 2020. The capital cost was put at $29.5 billion (US$27.4 billion).

In December 2014 Telstra signed agreements with the NBN company setting out the terms under which their copper network will be incorporated within the NBN' FttN infrastructure.. When regions are declared ready for service, Telstra is obliged to cease advertising new retail and wholesale services, and will have an 18 month period in which its customers will be migrated to the NBN..

The roll out of FttN didn't start until late 2015 and by mid 2016 the service has 120,000 subscribers (12% of all NBN connections). However this number is set to increase rapidly over coming years.

This report follows the roll out of the FttN network and provides information on the underlying VDSL technology. We also follow the developments in Fttdp (Fibre to the distribution point) as Buddecomm believes that this technology will become more prominent in coming years.