nbn, the company responsible for building the National Broadband Network, confirmed the delay to technology publication Delimiter. The company says they have deliberately chosen a slower activation approach as it “allows us to test our own processes and systems and to identify any issues along the way.”
I suggest you read Renai’s article to get the full spiel from nbn™.
Analysis of nbn’s monthly rollout schedule has revealed that the ambitious Fibre to the Node switch-on has been delayed for hundreds of thousands of premises by up to four months.
According to rollout information produced by the company rolling out the National Broadband Network, the ready for service dates for around 164 thousand premises in the NBN Fibre to the Node trial area have been delayed since the company’s estimates in May.
In May, the company estimated that 37,200 FTTN premises will be declared “Ready for Service” in September 2015 with another 35,200 premises added in October. However, the latest monthly ready for service plan released by the company last week shows a mere 2,100 premises will be declared “Ready for Service” in September. Delays continue into October, with only 9,600 premises expected to be activated in that month.
In total around 164 thousand premises have been pushed back by up to 4 months.
A full list of areas delayed can be found at the bottom of the post.
The raw data:
Table showing the change in the number of FTTN premises expected to be declared “Ready for Service” by nbn from May to August:
RFS Month
May Rollout Schedule
(‘000)
Aug Rollout Schedule
(‘000)
Net change
(‘000)
Sep 2015
37.2
2.1
-35.1
Oct 2015
35.2
9.6
-25.6
Nov 2015
30
36.1
6.1
Dec 2015
28.5
39.2
10.7
Jan 2016
26
35.8
9.8
Feb 2016
47.2
53.9
6.7
Mar 2016
0.0
48.5
48.5
Table showing the full list of Service Area Modules (SAMs) where nbn has delayed the Ready for Service dates:
Residents in the settlement of Bogan near Nyngan, NSW will soon benefit from the launch of the nbn’s first long term satellite called “Sky Muster”. This is a big win for the community, whose broadband quality rating was determined to be “E” (the lowest band) by the Department of Communication’s MyBroadband analysis.
The satellite, expected to launch on the first day of October, will bring a massive network capacity boost over the current NBN Interim Satellite Service. The company building the NBN says the satellites are expected to enter into commercial service some time in 2016 and will deliver speeds of up to 25 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload to rural communities – such as Bogan, NSW.
According to nbn’s rollout map, there are three premises in the Bogan township:
2403 Bogan Road, Bogan
2835 Bogan Road, Bogan
3185 Cathundral Bogan Road, Bogan
However, the accuracy of addressing information especially in rural areas may be patchy due to incomplete or out of date data in the GNAF database (Australia’s authoritative Geocoded National Address File).
opinion/analysis
This really isn’t news. The writer of this piece is aware of how many satire pieces out there poke fun at Bogan, NSW. He simply wanted to add to this – while featuring the National Broadband Network.
nbn staggers FTTN commercial launch date depending on ISP’s state
nbn, the company responsible for building the National Broadband Network, has updated their website stating that the commercial launch date for their Fibre to the Node network depended on the Access Seeker’s “registered office or principle (sic) place of business is located in Queensland”.
For most access seekers, the date for commercial launch is on Friday 18 September 2015. For access seekers located in Queensland, the commercial launch date is on the Monday after – on 21 September 2015 (or as advised by NBN Co).
The company has not indicated on their website why the date was staggered across the weekend for the different states.
The devil is in the detail – July’s quarterly construction plan shows 83k premises removed from the nbn rollout plan.
Analysis of the 18 month rollout plan released in July by nbn has shown that around 83,500 premises previously listed as being in the 18 month plan had been removed.
The areas removed were slated for a Fibre to the Node rollout to commence during 2016 and include the areas of and surrounding:
New South Wales
Cessnock/Bellbird
Darlington Point
Queensland
Brassall
Currumbin
Helidon
Magnetic Island
Samford
Gold Coast/Tweed Heads
Mount Crosby
Sunshine Coast/Noosa
Pittsworth
Robina
South Australia
Flinders
Tasmania
Queenstown
Rosebery
Zeehan
(for more information, see full table at the end of the post)
At the start of July, the company responsible for building the National Broadband Network announced in a media release that an additional 200,000 premises were added to the nbn rollout.
From initial calculations, this figure was derived from the total number of premises that were added to the rollout plan and does not take into account the number of premises removed from the plan.
If true, this means that the net increase in number of premises expected to commence construction within 18 months would be around 40% less than announced (from 200,000 to around 120,000 premises) in the July press release.
Following the adoption of the Multi-Technology Mix, the company responsible for building the network – nbn™, has released an updated version of the Network Design Rules document which dictates how the NBN is designed across all technologies.
In the document, dated 30th June and released today to the public, the company outlines changes to the network planning process for the MTM. Below are some highlights:
NBN removes protected fibre paths
With the implementation of the MTM, the company has done away with the original “ring topology” in the distribution fibre network, which was designed for fault tolerance allowing at least two paths for data to flow to and from the end user in the case of damage to the fibre network.
nbn™ states that a “star DFN topology” will be used instead, citing cost efficiencies in construction:
The Star DFN topology is the default for the Fixed Access build (post-Multi Technology Mix) to achieve cost efficiencies in construction.
In addition to the shift to the star topology, by default, only a 12-fibre core sheath will be used to connect an NBN node in a NBN Copper Access environment. This may limit the company’s ability to swap out copper nodes for a passive fibre rollout in the future.
FTTN and FTTB won’t have an NTD, HFC will
The company’s updated network design rules also provides insights into the CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) for the new technologies being introduced into the network.
For customers on the Fibre to the Node (FTTN) or Fibre to the Basement (FTTB) networks, nbn™ will not provide the VDSL2 modem required to connect to the network:
A VDSL2 modem (provided by the Access Seeker or end user). This is on the customer side of the nbn™ network boundary and is not discussed further in this document.
However, NBN Co will provide an NTD for customers in the HFC footprint.
The HFC NTD terminates the incoming physical coax cable at the end-user premises and provides one User to Network Interface (UNI). The HFC NTD will have the following:
1 x coax interface
1 x UNI-Data interfaces
The HFC NTD has not yet been finalised and will be the subject of an RFP.
Unlike the NBN Fibre, NBN Fixed Wireless and NBN Satellite footprints, the HFC NTD is expected to only feature one data port and no voice ports.
NBN copper nodes to include 48, 192 and 384 variants
nbn™ has listed that DSLAMs with 48, 192 and 384 ports will be used in the FTTN and FTTB network, with “further DSLAM sizes, are currently under investigation”.
The company says they will prioritise interconnecting their network with the existing copper plant “directly into the pillar” where possible, or alternatively, inject the VDSL2 signals into existing or new downstream and upstream joints.
Each DSLAM will also be served by 4 point-to-point fibres, with at least 2 spares for migration and expansion purposes. Each fibre is configured to aggregate 1GE of traffic back to the newly introduced Access Aggregation Switch located at the Fibre Access Node site, typically housed at an existing Telstra exchange.
NBN Co’s updated Network Design Document can be found here.
Today, nbn™ updated their rollout map to include new areas where build preparation commenced last month. As predicted on jxeeno blog last month, this month marks a milestone in the company’s implementation of the Multi-Technology Mix rollout methodology with all 152 of the new Serving Area Modules added set to MTM.
None of the areas added this month will use purely Fibre to the Premises – however, it is expected parts of some Serving Area Modules may use FTTP where economically feasible as part of the company’s established MTM deployment principles. The majority of premises in the listed areas are expected to get a Fibre to the Node or Fibre to the Basement connection. A further breakdown of technology-by-area or premises is not available on the company’s public website.
Earlier, ZDNet reported that the antenna design for the 3.5GHz network will be similar to a “baseball mit”:
“that the antennas installed on top of the premises as part of the trial were designed similar to a “baseball mitt” in that although the 3.5GHz beam is relatively narrow, the capture of it on the antenna was wide to ensure that line to sight between the NBN Co tower and the premises’ antenna was maintained.”
However, the Department of Defense had raised concerns that utilising the 3.5GHz spectrum may interfere with radar capabilities.
While the actual assigned spectrum is 3.56GHz, the assignments were issued under nbn™’s existing 3.4GHz license which it acquired from the now defunct Austar satellite TV company. A full list of ACMA assignments can be found here.
Multi-Technology Mix replaces the full Fibre to the Premises rollout
It’s been known for some time that the Fibre to the Premises rollout will come to a head. As expected after the introduction of the Multi-Technology Mix (MTM) rollout strategy as directed by the Government’s Statement of Expectations to nbn™, the FTTP rollout era is expected to end next month in June. According to the 18 month rollout plan released to service providers in March, there will be no more FSAMs (Fibre Serving Area Modules) expected to commence build beyond June 2015 encompassing a “pure” Fibre to the Premises rollout.
The past two months (March and April) saw a consecutive lows of 4 FSAMs entering into build preparation phase. The 19,900 lucky premises over the past two months are one of the final groups of communities to get the full FTTP rollout. Provided that nbn™ doesn’t remove them from the map again, these areas are expected to commence build within the next 2 months.
One final rollout region, somewhere in the Wollongong Fixed-Line Serving Area, is expected to be the final FSAM to enter into the build preparation phase this month and appear on the rollout map in June. From there on in, it is expected that nbn™ will transition to the MTM, dropping the word “Fibre” from “Fibre Serving Area Module”, releasing Service Area Modules (SAMs) that will encompass multiple technologies in a single module.
nbn™ has clarified some of the contents of the original post. The post has been updated in light of this new information.
As part of nbn™’s industry consultation on the Long Term Satellite Service launching next year, the company released a list of proposed charges for the satellite service to Access Seekers (service providers) for feedback last Friday. A summary table was released to the public this morning.
The table lists a number of new proposed charges, including a reactivation fee, installation, installer travel costs and a range of late or missed appointment fees.
Under the proposed charges, the company will charge the customer through the internet service provider an installation fee based on the distance the installer has to travel (charged at $1.40/km) and also pay an hourly rate for the time they spent driving and installing the equipment (at $98/hour). This is in contrast with nbn™’s current cost structure for the Fixed Wireless and Fixed-Line products where the installation is free for the customer.