Singapore-owned carrier Optus is set to profit from the latest NBN deal to the tune of nearly one billion dollars.The agreement between government-owned NBN Co and the SingTel subsidiary will see Optus shut down its Hybrid Fibre Coaxial network, shifting its customers onto the National Broadband Network.
The $800 million deal coincides with Telstra’s agreement official signing of a similar NBN Co deal that will shift its customers from the copper network to the NBN.
Combined, the two companies represent over 60 per cent of the retail broadband market, and their move onto the NBN has made NBN Co a monopoly in broadband wholesale.
500,000 Optus customers will begin shifting over to the NBN from 2014 in a phased migration, intended to be wholly migrated by 2018.