New figures published by NBN Co suggest the cost of providing fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) connections to older Australian sites may be 80 percent more than previous estimates.
For the so-called “brownfields” connections, the typical unit cost will be $4316, rather than the previous estimate of about $2400, the new study ordered by CEO Bill Morrow and CFO Stephen Rue estimates.
“In the past six months, NBN Co has undertaken a comprehensive review of cost per premises of building the NBN,” Morrow said in a report published this week.
“This is an essential piece of work with the experience we have to date to determine the true and full cost of building the network, in FttP brownfields, FttP greenfields and the fixed wireless areas.
“The analysis shows that our CPP [cost per premises] for brownfields, life to date, is $4316; for greenfields it is $2780; and for fixed wireless it is $3637. These are fully allocated costings and represent the cost of building a connection from the transit network to the customer or RSP equipment.”
The new estimates for the first time include lease payments to Telstra for its infrastructure. The NBN builder notes that it intends to reduce the cost of the network by using alternative technologies such as fibre-to-the-node and HFC cable to connect a larger proportion of premises.
