NBN Responds To Claims FTTP Is Better Value Than FTTN

Research has revealed the longer term costs and savings of Fibre To The Premises when compared to Fibre To The Node, but NBN says a fast rollout is priority.

STRINGER Image / Shutterstock.com

FTTP would deliver better value than FTTN, according to research from Monash University data analyst Richard Ferrers.

In response a representative from NBN told Gizmodo “the figures used as the basis for his analysis are from draft documents from early 2015 — not endorsed by our executive.”

Ferrers writes that the access to NBN’s financial figures, due to the release of internal documents late last year, enabled the comparison of FTTP to FTTN.

As reported by Delimiter, with his analysis Ferrers took into consideration operation costs and revenue for both technologies six and a half years after deployment.

“The longer FTTN remains in place, the greater the foregone benefit for not switching to FTTP,” he wrote.

Despite costing $2,300 more per premise to install than FTTN, the analysis showed FTTP cost $220 less per connection per year, and the install cost would be earned back in 76 months. FTTP also generated almost $10 more revenue each month than FTTN.

“This is a total net benefit of $360 per household per year for using FTTP over using FTTN.” writes Ferrers.

He takes analysis further into the future to reveal this figure could amount to $9 billion over ten years.

In response to the research, NBN says speed of install and deployment being of greatest importance.

“Our priority is to provide access to the NBN to all Australians as soon as possible in the most cost-effective way with an upgrade path to meet future demand. A faster rollout of the network leads to earlier activations and revenue opportunity.”

“A full Fibre-to-the-Premises rollout will take significantly longer to complete than the Multi-Technology approach. This means delayed revenue opportunity and an inability to take advantage of a ubiquitous network in the next four years.”