Close to 131,000 premises were connected by the end of 2013, generating $47.8m in revenue

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

NBN Co has announced a $715m operating loss for the six months to December 2013 as it continues to roll out the broadband network.



Although the losses were expected, its chief financial officer, Robin Payne, said close to 131,000 premises had been connected by the end of 2013, generating $47.8m in revenue, a 63% increase on the previous year.

Capital expenditure on the project increased by 50% to $1.19bn. Operating costs also increased 50%, to $500.4m.

NBN Co also confirmed on Friday that it was negotiating with Telstra to rent its copper lines for trials of fibre-to-the-node technology, to be run in Umina on the NSW central coast and in the northern Melbourne suburb of Epping.

Leasing the lines would fall outside an existing $11.2bn deal that NBN Co struck with Telstra for access to the telco’s infrastructure.

The communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has sought to overhaul the troubled project since he took the reins last September.

Hel asked NBN Co’s entire board to resign shortly after the Coalition was elected and appointed the former Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski as the new chairman.

He also scrapped Labor’s plan to connect customers to the network via fibre-optic cables relayed directly to their premises. The revised rollout will instead use a mix of technologies, including fibre, copper and coaxial cable, depending on what is “most economically efficient” in each area, Turnbull said.

The mix of technologies would connect customers to the network sooner and bring forward revenues, Switkowski said on Friday. This would “help fund the already-reduced construction costs and thereby reduce the debt requirements to build the NBN”.

More details of the transition to the new model will be provided in NBN Co’s corporate plan, to be released later this year.