nbn chief executive, Bill Morrow.
The rebranded company building the Australia national broadband network, NBN, has posted a $785 million loss in its third quarter results.
Consistent with a company in build phase, NBN incurred $2.2 billion in capital expenditure in the period and operating expenses of $893 million.
However, the cumulative number of homes and businesses that can order an NBN service (“serviceable premises”) is now 899,000 – a near doubling since 31 March 2014.
Approximately 12,300 premises are being made serviceable every week – an increase of 73 per cent on the 12-week rolling average for the comparative period.
This has led to an uplift in both NBN users and revenue.
The number of premises with an active NBN service grew by 133 per cent since March 31, 2014 to 389,000.
Cumulative telecommunications revenue for the period exceeded $100 million – an increase of 179 per cent on the comparative period.
NBN chief executive, Bill Morrow, said the company had made solid operational and financial progress over the period.
"That is a direct result of our investment in our people, improvements in the way we roll out the network and in the way we work with our partners," he said.
“It puts us on the path to achieving our full-year targets of around one million serviceable premises, around 480,000 activations and around $150 million in annual revenue.
He said the recent repositioning of the NBN brand, from that of a utility function to a visionary company, thatwould deliver positive benefits for every Australian, would also help materially drive activations and bring forward revenues.
“The next stage of the company’s development requires a step change in performance," he said.
"Work underway puts us in a solid position to make that transition so we can meet our goal of a truly national broadband network that will drive a competitive and productive Australia.”
During the quarter, the company launched its Fibre to the Building product and has begun activating FTTB services.
It is also doubling the size of preliminary Fibre to the Node construction to encompass approximately 400,000 premises, including for the first time communities in NT, SA and WA, as well as additional premises in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.
The company continues to anticipate that ACCC approval of its agreements with Telstra and Optus for use of certain copper and HFC assets will be finalised as soon as possible.
