NBN Co revenue up to $2.6B as demand for faster speeds grows

Customers on speed plans of 50Mbps and above rose to 77 per cent.

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NBN Co’s revenue during the first half of 2023 rose by 4 per cent, year-on-year, to $2.6 billion, due to the rising demand for faster broadband speeds.

In the National Broadband Network (NBN) builder’s financial results for the six months to 31 December, the number of customers on plans with wholesale download speeds of 50Mbps and above rose to 77 per cent of all customers

This is slightly up from the first half of FY22’s 76 per cent.

Additionally, the number of customers on even faster speed plans is growing at an even faster rate, with customers on plans offering wholesale download speeds of 100Mbps and above accounting for 21 per cent of all customers, up from the previous period’s 15 per cent.

In response, NBN Co CEO Stephen Rue said this represented “positive and encouraging signs of increased demand for our higher speed tiers”.

“We are pleased to report that we are on track with all key financial and operational performance metrics at the half-year to meet our full-year guidance,” he said.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was up to $1.8 billion during the period, an increase of $306 million.

Meanwhile, revenue from business customers rose to $549 million up 11 per cent from the previous period’s $493 million.

The residential average revenue per user (ARPU) was up 1 per cent to $47 due to the demand for higher speed, while revenue from business customers was up 11 per cent to $493 million.

However, capital was also up at $1.5 billion, a rise of 22 per cent, which was pegged on the ongoing investment in fixed line and transit upgrade programs, the design and construction of new network infrastructure for residential and business premises, increased software and systems development in support of operational simplicity and both fixed wireless and satellite speed and capacity upgrades.

As for the NBN builder’s upgrades, its fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) to fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) upgrade initiative reached around 550,000 premises by 31 December 2022, while its fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) to FTTP upgrade initiative reached 81,000.

NBN Co's first half results for FY23 come days after the NBN builder announced one million additional premises were slated to receive FTTP upgrades, with three million FTTN connections expected to be eligible for FTTP connections by the end of 2025.