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Tag: nbn

  • Ericsson wins contract extension with NBN

    Ericsson wins contract extension with NBN

    Ericsson has announced an extension of its managed services agreement with NBN Co, the company rolling out Australia’ national broadband network, through to 2020.

    Under the renewed agreement, Ericsson will continue to be responsible for providing network operations for the fixed wireless component of the NBN as well as ground systems operations for the network’s two dedicated communications satellites.

    The agreement also covers customer connections and assurance for both technologies, which are being used to provide connectivity in regional and remote areas where it has been deemed not cost effective to deploy fixed line technology.

    The fixed wireless and satellite services currently cover more than 980,000 premises in these areas with more than 290,000 premises connected to date.

    NBN Co provides wholesale access to the national broadband network to its retail service provider customers.

    Ericsson has been NBN Co’s managed services provider since 2011, when it was appointed to build and operate a TD-LTE based fixed-wireless broadband network. This agreement was extended in 2014 to include operations of the NBN’s long-term satellite solution.

    “As we extend our strategic partnership with NBN Co, we look forward to continuing the delivery of fixed wireless and satellite services to regional and rural Australia,” Ericsson Australia and New Zealand managing director Emilio Romeo said.

    “The availability of ubiquitous broadband to homes and businesses across Australia will help to bridge the digital divide and support economic and community growth.”

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  • NBN Co to deploy G.fast from 2018

    NBN Co to deploy G.fast from 2018

    Australia’s NBN Co, the state-owned company building the national broadband network, has revealed it will deploy the G.fast copper acceleration technology on its network from 2018.

    The company will adopt G.fast for the fibre-to-the-building and fibre-to-the-curb components of its networks to provide an upgrade path for these users to ultra-fast speeds.

    G.fast and the more advanced XG FAST can accelerate the speeds of VDSL lines to fibre-like speeds. XG FAST can deliver speeds of up to 1Gbps depending on the condition and length of the copper last mile.

    NBN Co said its trials of the technology in 2015 achieved speeds of 600Mbps over a 20 year old stretch of 100 meter coper cabling. But the average age of a copper connection in Australia is 35 years.

    “Adding G.fast to the toolkit for the FTTC and FTTB networks will allow us to deliver ultra-fast services faster and more cost effectively than if we had to deliver them on a full FTTP connection,” NBN Co chief strategy officer JB Rousselot said.

    The NBN project as envisioned by the previous labor government would have delivered FTTP connections to 93% of Australian premises, with fixed wireless and satellite technologies reaching the remaining 7%. But this plan was controversially scrapped by the current government in favor of a multi-technology mix of FTTP, FTTN, FTTC, HFC, fixed wireless and satellite.

    “Our FTTP and HFC end-users already have the technology to support Gigabit services and adding G.fast over FTTC provides the upgrade path for our FTTN end users to ultimately receive Gigabit speeds too,” Rousselot continued.

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  • Optus Satellite to provide NBN satellite services

    Optus Satellite to provide NBN satellite services

    Optus satellite, a subsidiary of major Australian operator Optus, has announced its first foray into providing satellite services over the National Broadband Network (NBN), via a partnership with Southern Phone.

    The partners are now providing Sky Muster satellite broadband services to customers in regional and rural areas.

    NBN plans to use satellite broadband services for the roughly 3% of the of the population – mostly in rural and remote areas – that won’t be covered by fixed line or fixed wireless NBN services.

    Southern Phone is a regional telecommunications service provider based in New South Wales. The company’s managing director David Joss noted that only 80,000 of the expected 240,000 Sky Muster satellite broadband services have been connected to date, leaving a significant potential market.

    “We see this service as a viable and effective alternative to a traditional NBN connection. For some consumers, this will be the first time they’ve been able to connect to a broadband service,” Optus Satellite VP Paul Sheridan added.

    “This new partnership will help us connect with even more regional customers and importantly, make sure that those customers are able to have the same level of support that a customer in a metro area would.”

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  • Telstra expects $2.36b ebitda hit from NBN

    Telstra expects $2.36b ebitda hit from NBN

    Shares in Australia’s Telstra slumped 10.6% to a five-year low of A$3.87 yesterday after the company warned it expects to take an A$3 billion ($2.36 billion) hit to its ebtida as a result of the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

    Telstra cut its planned dividend for the current financial year by 29% to A$0.22 per share after revealing that it expects the impact of the NBN rollout to be at the top end of its projected $2 billion to $3 billion ebitda decline.

    The incumbent operator announced the plan along with its financial results for the 12 months ending in June. Revenue for the year grew 4.3% to A$28.2 billion.

    Net profit fell 33.8% to A$3.9 billion, but excluding the impact of the sale of its Autohome Chinese classifieds business for A$2.1 billion to Ping An Insurance Group in the prior year, profit from continuing operations grew 1.1%.

    Telstra reported mobile net additions of 218,000 and domestic retail fixed broadband net additions of 132,000 during the year. Customers served by Telstra over the NBN meanwhile more than doubled to 1.18 million, representing a total market share of 52% of the non-satellite services over the national wholesale network.

    But Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said the company is facing competitive pressures in both the mobile and fixed segments, including the introduction of new rivals in both.

    “Digital disruption is continuing to accelerate, not just for us but also for our customers, and we are entering a significant point in the transformation of the telecommunications market with the nbn rollout reaching scale,” Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said.
    “It is against the backdrop of these market dynamics that we announced during the year our intention to invest up to A$3 billion over the next three years to achieve a further step change in our strategic positioning to deliver economic benefits of more than A$500 million of ebitda by 2021.”

    Telstra also plans to bring forward its target of achieving A$1 billion in efficiencies by FY21 and seek to deliver more than A$1.5 billion in net productivity gains by FY22.

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  • NBN achieves 1.1Gbps speeds in fixed wireless trial

    NBN achieves 1.1Gbps speeds in fixed wireless trial

    Australia’s nbn, the state-owned company building the National Broadband Network, has achieved speeds of over 1Gbps during a trial of fixed wireless technology.

    The company used carrier aggregation to combine seven 3.4-GHz carriers with four in the 2.3-GHz bands, achieving a downlink speed of 1.1Gbps and upstream speeds of 165Mbps.

    Using a range of various carriers across the two bands, nbn also demonstrated trial peek speeds of 400Mbps/55Mbps, 250Mbps/50Mbps and 100Mbps/400Mbps.

    The fastest 1.1Gbps speed was achieved by using three next generation Wireless Network Termination Devices (WNTDs) while the others were achieved with a single such device.

    The trial was conducted with Ericsson, NetComm Wireless and Qualcomm, and used speed testing technology from Mill Software.

    nbn has pledged to launch a 100Mbps fixed wireless product for the regional business segment in 2018.

    “Our ability to deliver gigabit speeds on fixed wireless demonstrates our continued focus on identifying and implementing tech advancements as and when they are needed, across all technologies,” nbn CEO Bill Morrow said.

    “It’s particularly exciting to be able to reaffirm our commitment to delivering a great experience to the 600,000 premises in regional Australia that will be served by the fixed wireless network. Our fixed wireless network has already been recognised as a world leader and we are determined to maintain that position by making sure regional Australians get access to the same high speed broadband available in our cities.

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  • Australia’s nbn trials Nokia’s universal GPON tech

    Australia’s nbn trials Nokia’s universal GPON tech

    Australia’s nbn, the company in charge of rolling out the National Broadband Network, has achieved 102Gbps aggregate speeds during a lab trial of Nokia’s universal NG-PON fiber technology.

    Universal NG-PON (next-generation passive optical network) combines TWDM-PON (time wavelength division multiplexing PON), XGS-PON (10 gigabit symmetrical PON) and GPON (gigabit PON) technology on the same fiber to support blazing fast speeds.

    It is designed to serve as a simple upgrade path to the current fiber technology used in FTTP deployments, saving the time and additional costs associated with laying new fiber.

    During the trial at Nokia’s Melbourne laboratory, nbn tested TWDM-PON with 40Gbps symmetrical, XGS-PON with 10Gbps symmetrical and GPON with 2.5Gbps, achieving aggregate download and upload speeds of over 102Gbps over a single shared access fiber.

    “Our successful trial of NG-PON2 technology with Nokia is another example of our ongoing commitment to continually develop the capabilities and speed of the nbn network,” nbn CTO Dennis Steiger said.

    “While we continue to deploy the nbn network at pace with over 2 million end-users now receiving nbn services and nearly 5 million able to order a service, we also have a very sharp focus on the future. The NG-PON2 trials we have conducted with Nokia have shown us the huge potential this very exciting technology has in terms of helping us deliver on our future bandwidth and capacity requirements.”

    But the current government’s decision to abandon the previous government’s plan to use FTTP for around 93% of connections, in favor of a multi-technology mix incorporating last-mile copper technology purchased from incumbent operator Telstra, complicates the potential upgrade path to the new technology.

  • Australia plans controversial rural NBN levy

    Australia plans controversial rural NBN levy

    The Australian government is planning to impose a monthly levy on rival networks to the state-funded National Broadband Network (NBN) to help fund the roll out of the NBN to rural areas.

    Communications minister Mitch Fifield said the government will seek to pass legislation that would establish an A$40 million ($30 million) Regional Broadband Scheme.

    This scheme would be funded by a levy of A$7.30 per month for each fixed line connection provided by rival superfast broadband providers, increasing every year into 2022 when it reaches A$8 per month.

    The levy would not apply for small companies with under 2,000 customers. Australia’s largest operator Telstra and main rival Optus will also be exempt because they are transitioning their fixed line operations onto the NBN as part of separate deals with the government.

    But the government’s own advice indicates that such a levy will be passed on to consumers resulting in higher prices.

    High-speed providers have complained that the proposed levy could “cripple” their operations, destroying 30% of their revenue, the report adds. The proposal has also been slammed as extremely anti-competitive.

    The presence of competing fiber networks to the NBN has been a contentious issue since the project was first announced in 2007, with successive governments fearing that the rival services could “cherry pick” the network’s most lucrative customers in dense population centers without needing to invest large sums to reach sparse regional areas.

  • Australia’s nbn selects FTTC supplier

    Australia’s nbn selects FTTC supplier

    Australia’s nbn – the company building the National Broadband Network – has selected NetComm Wireless to supply equipment for the fiber to the curb (FTTC) proportion of the rollout.

    NetComm Wireless will supply the distribution point units for the deployment, which will be one of the world’s first wide-scale rollouts of FTTC technology.

    FTTC involves delivering fiber to the telecoms pit outside a building, using existing copper lines from the pit to the home. This technique brings fiber closer to the end-user than FTTN.

    NetComm Wireless, a Sydney-based equipment supplier, appears to have beaten out global vendors such as existing NBN partner Nokia for the contract.

    The agreement follows successful trials of FTTC in Sydney and Melbourne conducted by nbn, which achieved end-user speeds of 100/40Mbps using VDSL vectoring technology.

    “nbn is delighted to bring NetComm Wireless on board as a technology partner. We have tested FTTC over the past year and we’re confident we can now deploy the technology in areas where it makes better sense from a customer experience, deployment efficiency and cost perspective,” nbn Chief Network Engineering Officer Paul Ryan said.

    “Delivering FTTC will not only allow us to deliver speeds of up to 100/40Mbps using VDSL but will also allow us to offer even faster speeds in the future with some of the new technologies that are becoming available.”

    But industry groups such as Internet Australia have been sharply critical of the current government’s decision to switch from a planned all-FTTP deployment for the vast majority of the network to a multi-technology mix making use of existing copper last mile connections.

    Critics of the decision have argued that the multi-technology mix model will require further expense to upgrade rapidly aging copper with fiber for the last mile in 10-15 years if not sooner.

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  • Australia’s second NBN satellite targets remote areas

    Australia’s second NBN satellite targets remote areas

    Last week’s successful launch into orbit of the second broadband satellite of Australia’s national broadband network, Sky Muster II, is expected to provide fast broadband services for rural and remote areas in the country.

    An estimated 400,000 Australian homes and businesses are set to benefit.

    “This service is already helping to improve healthcare outcomes by connecting remote patients to city specialists, delivering access to a new world of educational opportunities for kids in the bush and increasing productivity for local small businesses,” said nbn’s CEO Bill Morrow.

    “We are ensuring that no Australian is left behind by providing access to fast broadband for those who need it the most,” he added.

    Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield and Minister for Regional Communications Fiona Nash welcomed the launch, saying it will help bridge the digital divide between the cities and the country.

    The Australian government has invested $2 billion in two purpose-built broadband satellites and a network of ground stations that make up the Sky Muster service. The first satellite, Sky Muster, was launched in October last year.

    “Services went live in April this year and already, almost 31,000 homes and businesses are experiencing the benefits of nbn’s world-class satellite broadband,” Fifield said.

    The satellites are expected to revolutionize many services that rural Australians rely on, such as distance education for students in remote areas, and will be a game changer for rural business and agriculture.

    “As a farmer from rural NSW myself, I know how crucial fast and reliable broadband is for rural, regional and remote Australia,” Minister Nash said.

    The satellites offer download speeds of up to 25 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 5 Mbps. With a total capacity of 135 Gbps, the new satellites are a vast leap forward from the 4 Gbps of capacity provided by the previous government’s interim satellite service.

  • Australian NBN launches first HFC services

    Australian NBN launches first HFC services

    Australia’s nbn has announced the launch of the National Broadband Network’s first HFC services under the multi-technology mix model.

    The company in charge of overseeing the rollout and wholesale operation of the national network revealed that around 18,800 premises in Redcliffe in Queensland are now ready for service.

    Service providers in the area will be given access to peak wholesale speeds of up to 100Mbps uplink and 40Mbps downlink.

    The current NBN rollout plan calls for 875,000 HFC premises to be ready for service nationwide by June 2017, with 200,000 of these end-user premises activated on the network.

    The NBN was originally intended to use FTTP for more than 90% of Australia’s population, but on taking power three years ago the current government abandoned this model  in favor of a rollout using a mix of using a mix of FTTH, HFC and FTTN.

    At the time it was claimed this would allow the rollout to be completed faster and more cheaply than using FTTH, but the projected cost and timeframe of the multi-technology rollout has ballooned to be potentially nearly as expensive as the initial rollout plan.

    The in-opposition Labor party has pledged to use FTTP for an additional 2 million premises if it wins power. An election was held over the weekend and while it’s a close race and the votes are still being counted, experts expect the current government to win by a slim margin and form a minority government.

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