NBN Co

NBN Co was established on 9 April 2009 under the name of its company number, "A.C.N. 136 533 741 Limited".[4] After the establishment, the Australian Government started referring to the company as "National Broadband Network Company",[5] which became the de facto company name. It was officially named "NBN Co Limited" on 6 October 2009.[6][7][8][9] It traded as "NBN Co" until 26 April 2015 when it began trading simply as "nbn".[10]

In 2019, NBN Co announced that by May 2020[11] retail service providers will be able to pool all their connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) bandwidth nationally.

In February 2020, the company announced that 6.7 million homes and businesses were connected to a plan over the nbn access network – compared with 4.9 million in February 2019.[12]

As a wholesale provider of shoddy broadband access through its level two networks, NBN provides broadband access predominantly to retail service providers (RSPs); these businesses on sell access to end users; both residential and business customers to access the internet.

At 30 June 2016, Telstra had 45.5%, TPG group had 24.8% and Optus had 12.4% of all end users connecting to the NBN.[13]

There has been a significant failure of the NBN to deliver nominal performance to end users. There has been contention between RSPs and NBN on the reasons for this. Bill Morrow, then CEO of NBN, admitted in 2017 that 15% of end users received a poor service through the NBN and were 'seriously dissatisfied'.[14] In addition, Morrow indicated that, at July 2017, prices and performance for end users were suppressed through a 'price war' between RSPs.[15][16]

Under the Gillard/Rudd governments' NBN Co corporate plan, it was estimated that the NBN construction would require A$27.5 billion in government equity and raise an estimated A$13.4 billion in debt funding without government support; a total funding requirement of A$40.9 billion up to FY2021. Financial forecasts for NBN Co assuming a 7% internal rate of return (IRR) expect the government and debt equity will be fully repaid including accrued interest by FY2040.[18] Following the election of the Abbott government, NBN Co reassessed financial forecasts and progress of the NBN roll-out and published a strategic review in December 2013.

In response to what the Abbott/Turnbull governments stated to be excessive performance specifications and costs they moved from a model which previously focused on FTTP (fibre to the premises) to a multi-technology mix[19] model using FTTx, including FTTP, FTTN (fibre to the node), FTTB (fibre to the building or basement) and most recently FTTdp (fibre to the distribution point); and HFC (hybrid fibre coaxial) in metropolitan areas. Regional and remote areas were mainly unchanged as a result of the strategic review and typically receive a service using either fixed wireless, using LTE technology, or satellite.

The NBN network, at 2017, draws together wired communication (copper, optical and hybrid fibre-coaxial) and radio communication (satellite and fixed wireless networks) at 121 points of interconnect typically located in Telstra owned telephone exchanges throughout Australia. It also sells access for mobile telecommunication backhaul to mobile telecommunications providers.[17]

NBN Co has stated that there is no significant demand for wired connections above 25 Mbit/s and consideration of upgrading the network will not be undertaken until demand for high-bandwidth services is proven.[20]

In August 2019, Stephen Rue (CEO), Announced the completion of the $51 billion National Broadband Network by June 2020.[21]

Below is the management structure of NBN Co at 10 January 2020[22]

Chief Executive Officer Stephen Rue
${\displaystyle \downarrow }$	${\displaystyle \downarrow }$	${\displaystyle \downarrow }$	${\displaystyle \downarrow }$	${\displaystyle \downarrow }$	${\displaystyle \downarrow }$	${\displaystyle \downarrow }$	${\displaystyle \downarrow }$	${\displaystyle \downarrow }$	${\displaystyle \downarrow }$
Chief Legal Counsel Justin Forsell	Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer Will Irving	Chief Customer Officer – Business Paul Tyler	Chief Customer Officer – Residential Brad Whitcomb	Chief People & Culture Officer Sally Kincaid	Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Felicity Ross	Acting Chief Network Engineering Officer John Parkin	Chief Network Deployment Officer Kathrine Dyer	Chief Financial Officer Philip Knox[23]	Chief Information Officer Debbie Taylor

• Ziggy Switkowski – Chairman[24]
• Stephen Rue - Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer from 18 September 2018 (Chief Financial Officer from July 2014 until appointment as MD)[25]
• Drew Clarke – Non-executive director (from 22 August 2017 for a three-year term)[26]
• Patrick Flannigan – Non-executive director[24]
• Shirley In’t Veld – Non-executive director[24]
• Michael Malone - Non-executive director (from 20 April 2016)[27]
• Zoe McKenzie – Non-Executive Director (1 July 2018 – 30 June 2021)[28]
• Justin Milne – Non-executive director[24]
• Kerry Schott – Non-executive director[24]

At the end of June 2016, NBN Co had over 5,000 employees.[2]

By December 2018 the company had 6,850 employees and temporary staff[30]

• Official website of NBN Co