The NBN has proven to be the backbone of the nation that kept Australians connected and productive in the last 18 months during the COVID pandemic – and that’s been proven with a 21 per cent increase in revenue year on year.
The NBN generated revenue of $4.6 billion in FY21, an increase of 21 per cent year on year.
More than 933,000 residential and business premises were also connected to the NBN in the last 12 months taking the total to the end of June 2021 to more than 8.2 million premises.
The NBN says it is also making good progress on the $4.5 billion investment to rollout fibre for FTTN (Fibre to the Node) and FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) upgrades.
“The last 12 months have been very challenging for most Australians, but our purpose has never been clearer,” said NBN Co CEO Stephen Rue.
“NBN Co exists to lift the digital capability of Australia and we reiterate our commitment to provide a secure, reliable, high-speed broadband access network to our residential and business customers across the country.
“The NBN network is the digital backbone of the nation that will continue to keep Australians connected and productive, educated, informed and entertained today and in the future.
“It is important that we maintain a financially strong and economically viable company that can continue to invest in the network.
“We are proud of the measures we have put in place to support the nation, and the balance we have achieved in delivering strong and sustainable operational and financial results. This is what we believe is expected of us by our ultimate shareholders – every Australian taxpayer who has indirectly invested in the NBN network.”
Here’s how the NBN supported customers throughout the COVID pandemic:
Answered the call for more data more quickly in tough times:
– Provided additional wholesale bandwidth at no extra cost to internet retailers to assist consumers as they worked, studied, and sought entertainment from home during the pandemic from March 2020 to January 2021.
– Provided additional data inclusions on NBN Home Fast, NBN Home Superfast and NBN Home Ultrafast wholesale bundle discounts helping to bring down costs for households and bringing up speeds for consumers.
– Carried 90 per cent of the country’s data traffic which more than coped with the increase in data demand from more Australians than ever working, learning, and connecting with each other from home.
Supported Australians’ need for speed in tough times:
– NBN Co helped more than 6.1 million or 75 per cent of Australian homes and businesses access plans based on wholesale download speed tiers of 50mbps or higher – an increase of over 1 million homes and businesses from the previous year.
– Plus, more than 1.3 million households are now on plans based on wholesale download speed tiers of around 100Mbps or higher, reflecting the needs of Australians as they continue to work and access education and entertainment at home during the pandemic.
Increased the number of Australian households and businesses connected and accessible:
– Over 930,000 new customers were connected to services over the NBN network in the last financial year, bringing the collective total to 8.2 million connected residential and business premises. This represents a 13 per cent increase on the 7.3 million premises connected at 30 June 2020.
– Helped connected Australian businesses to service their customers efficiently via upgrades to fast Enterprise Ethernet via the creation in FY21 of 240 NBN Business Fibre Zones across Australia, including 85 regional centres.
– Increased coverage to more of Australia with the company’s business NBN Satellite Service beams now covering 100 per cent of mainland Australia and large surrounding islands, helping services providers deliver business-grade services to eligible businesses in remote and hard to reach places across Australia.
– Doubled the average wholesale data download limits on NBN Sky Muster Satellite services to help ensure those in rural and regional Australia stayed connected.
Supported Australians in need:
– During times of disaster like Western Australia’s Cyclone Seroja, and the devastating floods that impacted the eastern coast of Australia, NBN Local teams were deployed in NBN Sky Muster satellite-enabled Road Muster trucks to provide affected communities with emergency access to broadband, charging facilities for mobile phones, information on weather, bushfire warnings and news, along with entertainment for children of displaced families.
