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NBN rollout drives Aussie fixed line revenue above $8B

Comes as NBN aims to extend FTTP network upgrade program to about 3.5 million premises by 2025.

Australia’s fixed communications market reached over $8 billion in 2022 following the completion of the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout. 

According to analyst firm GlobalData, the fixed communications market in Australia is likely to see steady growth with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.7 per cent from 2022 to 2027.  

Fixed broadband service revenue is expected to increase at a CAGR of 2.1 per cent over the period, mainly driven by the growth in fibre-to-the-home/business (FTTH/B) subscriptions, on the back of the ongoing coverage expansions by NBN Co. 

In June 2022, NBN opened up 160,000 premises served by fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to upgrade to fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP). 

In addition, NBN aims to extend the fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) to FTTP network upgrade program to about 3.5 million premises by the year-end 2025.

The ongoing initiative, which was announced in November 2021 for an initial 200,000 premises, sees NBN Co and state governments bring FTTN and FTTC connections over to FTTP. 

However, fixed voice service revenue will decline at a CAGR of 3.4 per cent over 2022-to-2027 due to the drop in the overall fixed voice average revenue per user (ARPU) levels. 

“Subscribers’ inclination towards mobile and OTT-based communication services will also drag down the fixed voice revenues over the coming years,” said Srikanth Vaidya, GlobalData telecom analyst. 

“Fibre lines accounted for a majority 71.5 per cent share of the total fixed broadband lines in 2022, which will increase to about 75.3 per cent in 2027.

“This growth will be supported by the rising demand for high-speed Internet services in the country and the government’s focus on aggressive fibre network expansion nationwide under the NBN project.” 

According to Vaidya, Telstra will lead the fixed voice services market through 2027 due to “its strong foothold in the voice-over-IP (VoIP) segment”.  

The operator will also lead the fixed broadband market supported by its focus on fibre network coverage expansion and the promotion of cost-effective multi-play plans at discounted price