Australian government-backed National Broadband Network (nbn) said it has achieved speeds of 109 Mbps downstream and 44 Mbps upstream using a less pricey fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) platform that uses VDSL technology.

RELATED: Australia’s nbn Marks Broadband Deployment Progress

Nbn, which is building and operating a national wholesale broadband network that uses multiple types of access technologies including fiber-to-the-premises, HFC and fiber-to-the-node, said its first FTTC activation, part of trials in Coburg, a northern suburb of Melbourne, hit those speeds using VDSL over a 70-meter copper line.

In certain circumstances, nbn is looking to a use an FTTC architecture that brings fiber to the property boundary, then connecting that fiber to a Distribution Point Unit that then links to the existing copper lines that serves the premises.

Nbn plans to launch commercial services using FTTC in the first half of next year, and eventually use the technology to serve an initial 1 million premises.

The company likewise estimates that the FTTC approach will cost about $2,900 per premises, compared to $4,400 per premises for FTTP.

“We believe FTTC will become another vital tool in the mix of technologies we’re using to deliver the nbn access network,” Bill Morrow, CEO of nbn, said in a statement.

Earlier this month, nbn said 3 million premises on its network had been activated, with another 3 million that are ready to connect.

"Of course, I understand why some people come out with glib catchphrases like, 'Do it once, do it right, do it with fibre,” Morrow noted in this blog post about nbn’s FTTC-facing work.  “If only it were as simple as that in the real world. Here are the plain facts. This network is not being delivered as a free gift – the government wants taxpayers to get their $49 billion back and expect a small return as well.”

Australian government-backed National Broadband Network (nbn) said 3 million premises on its broadband access network have been activated, with another 3 million that are now ready to connect.

Nbn said about 1 million premises have been activated in the past six months, with 1.4 million premises connected to fiber-to-the-node and HFC networks activated in that past 18 months.

That’s significant, nbn said, because it took nearly five years for it to reach 1 million activated premises using mostly fiber-to-the-premises access network technology.

Nbn currently expects to activate a total of 4.5 million premises from June 2017 to June 2019.

Nbn has been working toward a goal to provide high speed wholesale access and connect 8 million homes and businesses by 2020 using a mix of access technologies, including HFC, fixed wireless, satellite, fiber-to-the-node, and fiber-to-the-premises. Arris is a key player for the HFC portion of nbn’s upgrade plan.

RELATED: nbn Lowers HFC Goals

“We’re regularly activating more than 40,000 premises every week, which means we’re pretty much activating a city the size of Canberra every single month. This huge increase naturally puts pressure on the customer service experience,” Peter Ryan, nbn’s chief networking engineering officer, said in a statement

Expect more insight on nbn’s progress this week at the SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Denver.

The ISBE International Attendee Breakfast, set for this Friday (Oct. 20) from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. MT (rooms 605/607) at the Colorado Convention Center, will feature a panel with Andrew Baxter, general manager, HFC engineering, nbn; Steve McCaffery, president, international sales, international business operations, Arris; and Chris Bastian, SVP, engineering/CTO, SCTE•ISBE.

Read More: Complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2017

The discussion is expected to cover topics and technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things, 8K, virtual reality and augmented reality.

Nbn recently became a member of the SCTE•ISBE Corporate Alliance Partner Program, and joined the service provider ranks at CableLabs earlier this year.

Australian government-backed National Broadband Network (nbn) said it has reached a deployment milestone as there are now 6 million homes and businesses able to connect to broadband service on nbn network from one of its preferred ISP partners.

Nbn is working toward a goal to provide high speed wholesale access and connect 8 million homes and businesses by 2020 using a mix of access technologies, including HFC, fixed wireless, satellite, fiber-to-the-node, and fiber-to-the-premises. Arris is a key player for the HFC portion of nbn’s upgrade plan.

RELATED: nbn Lowers HFC Goals

Nbn noted that the FTTN and HFC deployments today serve more than half of the 6 million premises that can connect to retail services on the network.

Regarding pace of deployment, nbn said it’s been making close to 100,000 premises serviceable each week over the past three months. Roughly 2.7 million premises are accessing retail services over the network, with about 40,000 new premises signing up with internet providers each week, nbn said.

Under the current plan, the network, more than half built today, is expected to be three-quarters built by 2018 and complete by 2020.

Nbn, now a card-carrying member of CableLabs, announced in June that lab tests of DOCSIS 3.1 achieved 1-Gig speeds. At the time, it said it would move to field trials in December and eye potential commercial launches of D3.1 on the HFC portion of its network in 2018.

RELATED: Australia’s nbn Joins CableLabs

Under the most current timeframe, nbn expects to DOCSIS 3.1-powered service by the end of 2018, according to ZDNet.

Australian government-backed National Broadband Network (nbn) said its lab tests of DOCSIS 3.1 technology have produced downstream speeds of about 1 Gbps and upstream speeds of 100 Mbps, more than double the 40 Mbps its retail partners are offering via the HFC portion of the nbn network.

RELATED: Australia’s nbn Joins CableLabs

Those lab trials were conducted in Melbourne (on HFC plant acquired from Telstra), and indicate that gigabit speeds are “around the corner” for eligible homes and businesses in other markets, including Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and the Gold Coast, nbn said.

Nbn said it plans to conduct more D3.1 lab tests in August and shift to field trials in December, with a “potential commercial launch” of D3.1 services in 2018.

"These early tests of DOCSIS 3.1 technology are very exciting,” Bill Morrow, nbn’s CEO, said in a statement. “This is another example of the continued efforts of the nbn team to innovate and plan for Australia's growing demands for data. DOCSIS 3.1 is going to be able to provide fantastic gigabit potential for end users – just as our Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network does today.”

Nbn’s current goal is to provide universal high-speed broadband to 8 million homes and businesses by 2020 using a mix of access technologies, including HFC, fixed wireless, satellite, fiber-to-the-node, and fiber-to-the-premises. Arris is a key player for the HFC portion of nbn’s upgrade plan.

Under the most recent corporate plan, the “base case” is to have 17% of the nbn network use FTTP, 51% to use a mix of fiber-to-the-node/basement/distribution point, 24% HFC, and 8% fixed wireless and satellite.

RELATED: nbn Lowers HFC Goals

In May, nbn said about 5 million homes and businesses could connect to retail services via its network, noting that, on average, it was activating about 250,000 premises per month so far in 2017. About 2.2 million premises can currently connect to retail services over the nbn network.

Australian government-backed National Broadband Network (nbn) said it remains “on track” to complete its stated plan to complete its network build by 2020 and connect 8 million premises, but it will be reducing the amount of hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) required to reach that goal.

In a revised corporate plan released this week, nbn outlined a shift in mix of technology types it will use to connect 8 million premises by 2020. 

It originally planned to reach that in part with HFC to 4 million premises that are considered “ready for service” (RFS), but knocked that forecast down to 2.5 million to 3.2 million premises. Anticipated use of fiber-to-the-node/-to-the-basement/and distribution point, meanwhile, rose from 5.1 million premises that are RFS to 6.5 million.

Nbn’s planned use of FTTP (2 million to 2.5 million RFS) and fixed wireless and satellite technologies (900,000 to 1.1 million RFS) remain relatively steady.

According to IT News, nbn CEO Bill Morrow said the change in that deployment mix came after it was able to glean more data from the state of HFC networks it acquired from Telstra and Optus.

"[Last year] we didn't have contracts in place with equipment suppliers and delivery partners… and we lacked a lot of the data associated with exchange information from Telstra and Optus,” he said, according to the publication. We've been able to close all of that out through the year…The data that is available today changed the type of technology we should choose."

In the newly updated plan, nbn now anticipates annual revenue for fiscal year 2020 to be about $5 billion, with ARPU of $52.  As for the current state,  nbn has 2.9 million premises ready for service, and 1.1 million activated end users. Revenues were $421 million.

Once everything is in place, nbn expects to have 1-Gig available to 40% of Australians, 100 Mbps to 70%, and 100% getting 25 Mbps or more.

nbn noted that the projected top end of the peak funding range is now $46 million to $54 million, down from $46 million to $56 million, as it was able to minimize many of the uncertainties and cost assumptions in the business.

The government-backed group also noted that it’s fully funded for fiscal year 2017, but that it’s also exploring sources of external debt. Per IT News, nbn will still need to raise another $10 billion to meet its anticipated FY2018 requirement of $39.5 billion.

"We are confident we'll be able to obtain the necessary funds," Morrow said, noting that the process is already underway, according to the report.

nbn recently launched commercial broadband service on Telstra's  former HFC network in Ocean Reef, Western Australia, offering up to 100 Mbps down and 40 Mbps for its “retail service providers.”

nbn’s first commercial HFC services occurred in June in Redcliffe, Queensland, via the former Optus network.

Nbn, which uses an open access wholesale model and has tapped Arris as a partner for the HFC portion of its plan, said then that Optus, TPG and Exetel are offering HFC services at launch, with Telstra likely to be joining that group of sellers soon.

Nbn also has plans to launch DOCSIS 3.1 services and target gigabit speeds in the second half of 2017.

The Australian government-backed National Broadband Network (nbn) said it has launched commercial broadband services on Telstra’s former hybrid fiber/coax network in Ocean Reef, Western Austria.

The launch, which offers services of up to 100 Mbps down by 40 Mbps upstream from what it calls “Retail Service Providers” follows nbn’s first commercial HFC services launch in Redcliffe, Queensland, on June 30 on the former Optus network.

nbn said Optus, TPG and Exetel are offering HFC services at launch, with Telstra likely to be joining that group of sellers soon. 

In addition to 100/40, other speed tiers offered on the nbn HFC network are 50/20, 25/5 and 12/1, an nbn official noted, adding that “most” of the RSPs implement data caps that vary by provider, with many set at either 250 gigabytes, 500 GB or 1 terabyte.

“It is worth remembering that we will actually be one of the first operators in the world to deliver open access wholesale services over an HFC network so we have broken a lot of new ground in these last couple of years and now that hard work will pay off for our customers and end-users,” John Simon, chief customer officer at nbn, said in a statement.

Nbn’s near-term plan is to have about 200,000 HFC “end-user premises” activated by June 2017 as it works on a rollout that will eventually cover a footprint of more than 3 million premises.

Nbn, which isn’t without its critics, expects to launch DOCSIS 3.1 services and target gigabit speeds in the second half of 2017.

The group’s broader plan is to deliver broadband to 12 million premises in Australia via FTTP, FTTN, HFC, fixed wireless and satellite by 2020.