NBN Co has revealed almost 1800 householders took retail services on its fibre network in the final five weeks of 2012, enabling the firm to surpass 10,000 active fibre connections on its network for the first time.
The figures are part of a long-awaited statement on the number of active connections on the NBN, which show that 34,500 premises had active fibre, fixed wireless or satellite services by the end of last year.
Of the 34,500 active connections, 10,400 are on fibre — 6600 in brownfields areas and 3800 in new estates; 1000 are on the fixed wireless network; and the remaining 23,100 are satellite users.
"The results reflect progress in the early stages of the rollout, and are what we would expect given the time and work necessary to put in place the contracts and agreements needed to get to this point of execution," NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley said.
Fibre breakdown
The latest fibre optic take-up figure shows incremental growth in the Christmas period.
NBN Co had 3900 active fibre connections as at June 30, 2012.
By October 16, it reported having "just under 6400 fibre" users at a Senate Estimates Committee, revising the figure up to "more than" 7000 by the end of October, and to 8613 by November 23, according to parliamentary hansard records.
Between November 23 and the end of 2012, it added another 1787 users to its fibre ranks. That tipped NBN Co's active fibre connections number over 10,000 for the first time.
The second half of 2012 saw a major ramp-up of active fibre connections taken in new housing estates.
NBN Co saw active connections in new housing estates rise 660 percent in the six months to December 31, 2012, from 500 to 3800.
The company also almost doubled the number of active connections in built-up areas ("brownfield") over the same six-month period.
It went from having 3400 active "brownfield" customers at the end of June 2012 to 6600 by the end of December 2012, a 94 percent increase.
Fibre connections as a percentage of all active connections to the NBN remained stable at about 30 percent.
Over the air
Satellite continues to make up the largest percentage of the total NBN customer base.
By the end of 2012, NBN Co counted 23,100 active satellite connections, up from 9600 in just six months. The company has previously said about 9000 come from the defunct Australian Broadband Guarantee (ABG) program.
Satellite users account for 67 percent of all active services on the NBN. This is a slight dip on the previous six-month period, where satellite users made up 71 percent of all active connections.
NBN Co saw the number of active connections on its fixed wireless network climb from 100 at the end of June 2012 to 1000 by the end of 2012.
Next set of targets
NBN Co indicated in its latest figures that it expects to meet its target of 92,000 active fibre, wireless and satellite connections for the financial year ended June 2013. (pdf)
The company has also previously hit its activated premises targets for financial years 2011 and 2012.
Reaching the FY2013 active connection target will mean a sharp change in the mix of active services, starting now.
The big change is that the majority of active connections taken between now and June 30, 2013, are expected to be on the fibre network.
NBN Co is targeting 44,000 active fibre connections in built-up areas of Australia, and 10,000 in new housing estates, for a total of 54,000 active connections.
Achieving that would mean 59 percent of all active connections to the NBN would be via fibre. This figure has previously hovered at around 30 percent.
This means growth in active satellite connections — which has propped up the total active connections figure in past reporting periods — will plateau.
In fact, NBN Co is targeting 37,700 active satellite and fixed wireless connections by the end of June this year. Even excluding fixed wireless, which is ramping up, satellite as a percentage of all active connections will fall substantially.
Pressure tactic
NBN Co's release of active connection data late on public holiday Monday came after a weekend of renewed pressure for the figures to be released.
The Australian reported Saturday that ISPs were being offered a $108 incentive to shift existing customers onto the NBN.
NBN Co called it a "standard promotional activity". Opposition communications minister Malcolm Turnbull attacked it as an attempt to boost subscriber numbers ahead of this years' federal election.
Earlier this month, the company released network construction figures where works were either "commenced or completed", but gave no indication at the time when it would detail active connections.
NBN Co had attempted to sate demand for the active connections figure with a ramp-up of news about the switch-on of fibre service access modules.
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