Australia’s NBN on Monday announced that the funding it will require to roll out its infrastructure will be as much as A$15 billion (€9.3 billion) higher than it previously forecast.
Alongside the presentation of its financial results for the full year to the end of June and upbeat targets for the network going forward, NBN admitted that costs will come in at A$46 billion-A$56 billion, up from a previous target of around A$41 billion.
The government dismissed the suggestion that the increased figure is the result of costs "blowing out", but rather is a more accurate reflection of the true cost of the network build-out, compared with the figures available at the time of its last strategic review in late 2013.
And, unsurprisingly, communications minister Malcolm Turnbull penned a blog post pinning it all on the previous administration, reminding Australia that his government slashed the cost of NBN by opting for a multi-technology mix over Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) plan almost two years ago.
"The figures in the corporate plan published today represent the most accurate historical figures on the cost of the NBN and the most reliable forecasts of the cost to completion," Turnbull said.
Under that corporate plan, NBN aims to have covered 9.1 million homes and business by mid-2018 and have 4.4 million active connections.
As of the end of June this year NBN had 486,000 homes and business connected and reached 1.15 million premises. A year ago those figures stood at 211,000 and 553,000 respectively.
The company reported revenues of A$164 million for the full year to 30 June, more than two and half times the A$61 million it generated in FY2014. Average revenue per user (ARPU) grew by more than A$3 to A$40.45. However, the firm saw its net loss widen to A$2.02 billion from A$1.64 b illion, and its EBITDA loss worsened to A$1.13 billion from A$1.01 billion.
"NBN has not only met its targets; it has exceeded them," company CEO Bill Morrow said in a statement on Monday.
"The achievements of the past 12 months – including the recent regulatory approval of the Telstra agreement and the draft approval of the Optus deal – give us confidence that we can continue to accelerate the build," he added. "This will help us to meet our goal of ensuring that every home and business in Australia can receive fast broadband by 2020 so we can spur the digital economy and close the digital divide."
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) approved a revised plan for NBN to take ownership of Telstra’s copper and HFC assets – and customers – in certain areas in June, and late last month said it proposed to authorise a similar deal centred on Optus’ HFC network.
NBN aims to have 8 million premises connected to the NBN by 2020, by which date it forecasts annual revenue of more than A$4 billion.
