Latest news with #NBNCo
West Australian
22-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Optus rings up revenue growth as customers flock back
Optus may be starting to put the past behind it and regain the Australian public's trust after 2022's massive cybersecurity breach and a nationwide outage the following year as mobile phone customers flock back to the telco. The Singapore-owned telecommunication giant on Thursday reported it added 238,000 customers to its mobile base in the year to the end of March. The surge was led by healthy prepaid growth at mobile virtual network operator amaysim, with the number of Optus postpaid customers also increasing by 52,000. Revenue over the year hit $8.2 billion — up 1.4 per cent from a year earlier. Operating costs were flat at $6.1b. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 5.7 per cent to $2.2b and EDIT leapt 55 per cent to $446 million. Chief executive Stephen Rue — who joined Optus early last year after a decade-long stint at NBN Co, including as CEO — hailed the results but conceded Optus still had work to do to rebuild its tarnished reputation. 'Optus is committed to providing real choice for telecommunications customers as we prioritise exceptional service, competitive offers and a reliable network,'' Mr Rue said. 'Our mobile results, led by the strong performance of amaysim, show customers are responding to our commitment to offering a range of choices that suit their everyday telco and communication needs.' Sales of high-end mobile devices boosted mobile equipment revenue by 5.2 per cent, as mobile service revenue grew 4.1 per cent, with blended average revenue per user rising 2.4 per cent year-on-year. Overall mobile revenue was up 4.4 per cent. Home revenue was 3.9 per cent higher, with NBN and fixed wireless access revenue up 3.5 per cent and 9.1 per cent, respectively, mainly due to higher average revenue per user. Wholesale and enterprise and business fixed revenue fell 5.3 per cent for the second half, reflecting lower project-based satellite revenue and declining fixed revenues. Up to 10 million Optus customers were affected in September 2022 when hackers breach the telco's data defences. Just over a year later, a nationwide outage that affected internet, mobile and fixed-line services caused mass disruption across the country and forced the exit of under-fire CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.
Tom's Guide
16-05-2025
- Business
- Tom's Guide
'Hyperfast' NBN 2000 plans are landing in a few months – here's what to expect from the new speed tier
Let's face it — compared to other countries, Australia's average internet speeds are severely lacking. According to Speedtest's Global Index, Australia ranks 82nd for fixed broadband speeds, averaging 81.61Mbps across the country, while Singapore reaches 357.52Mbps and the US tops out at 287.43Mbps. Right now, the fastest speeds theoretically possible in Australia are 1,000Mbps, otherwise known as the 'ultrafast' tier. We say "theoretically" here as no provider currently reaches the magic number, but Swoop and Flip come rather close, advertising 890Mbps and 900Mbps respectively. But this is set to change come September 14, 2025, as NBN Co will introduce NBN 2000 plans — a.k.a the 'hyperfast' tier. Hyperfast plans were confirmed nearly eight months ago, and are set to bump up Aussie internet download speeds to a fiery fast theoretical of 2,000Mbps. While there are still some months between now and the impending rollout, there are plenty of questions surrounding the new tier and what this means for Aussie consumers. We've rounded up all the best answers on what to expect from the new speed tier, pricing, connection types and more, before the rollout this September. If you want more information on the best NBN plans currently available, you can check out our guide here. Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate. According to NBN Co, the new plans are rolling out on September 14, 2025. However, this will be the date that plans will be available for retail service providers, not necessarily consumers. With that in mind, we reasonably expect that NBN 2000 plans will be widely available to order for residential properties and businesses by October. NBN 2000 plans will theoretically provide a maximum of 2,000Mbps downloads doubling the current fastest speeds of 1,000Mbps. Upload speeds are also expected to increase when compared to NBN 1000 plans, reaching 200Mbps; however, this is only expected for FTTP connections. As we often say here at Tom's Guide, this 2,000Mbps estimate is a theoretical figure, meaning that most plans are unlikely to reach those high speeds in the real world. Though, in our experience, we've seen providers get surprisingly close to the speed estimates, much like Flip claiming 900Mbps TES on the NBN 1000 tier. While it's unlikely that customers will be able to reach the full 2,000Mbps download speeds, some households could achieve a higher download speed margin than others, depending on their location, NBN connection type and preferred ISP. Right now, NBN 2000 plans will only be available to homes and businesses with either fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) connection types. While there's no confirmation yet, we suspect that customers with other connection types will need to upgrade to full fibre to access NBN 2000 plans. NBN Co's free fibre rollout is expected to offer 2Gbps speeds to over 10 million households by the end of 2025. If you wish to jump into the hyperfast lane but haven't upgraded yet, you can check your eligibility on NBN Co's website. If we're being honest here, it's hard to approximate the cost of NBN 2000 plans for the average consumer. What we do know is that wholesale plans will be sold to RSPs for AU$115p/m. Based on this information alone, we expect consumer costs to be far higher. At the time of writing, we anticipate that an NBN 2000 plan could cost between AU$150p/m to AU$200p/m, with potential introductory offers lessening the fee to around AU$120p/m for the first six months. That said, NBN plan costs differ greatly between providers. For example, on the NBN 1000 tier, the cheapest plan currently hails from SpinTel, at AU$90p/m and the most expensive plan is Telstra for AU$150p/m. That's a huge AU$60 difference between the two. NBN 1000 plans are sold as a wholesale product to providers for AU$72.22p/m, so it's crystal clear that providers can pick and choose whether they want to mark up their plans and by how much (or not). Your chosen NBN plan often depends on your household's internet needs and connection type. That said, for most homes and businesses with FTTP or HFC, NBN 2000 plans won't be the go-to option as they'll likely come with some pretty hefty price tags. However, NBN 2000 plans aren't the only new offering being introduced this year, as NBN Co has announced that all fast tiers (think 100Mbps and up) will be recipients of a speed boost. NBN 100 plans will get a 5x maximum speed increase to 500Mbps, NBN 250 plans will increase to 750Mbps maximum and NBN 1000 plans will bump minimum speeds to 750Mbps. So, in essence, all NBN 100 plans and above should automatically get upgraded to faster speeds. This may come with a price increase, too, given the anticipated NBN Co wholesale changes coming into effect on July 1. However, all tiers have received a minimal increase of under AU$2, so we don't expect prices to shift too much. You should also note that these promised speed increases will only apply to customers with either an FTTP or HFC fixed-line NBN connection. If you're on the older FTTN or FTTC infrastructure, then you will need to take advantage of the free fibre upgrade if you want to increase your home download speed. You may question whether upgrading to an NBN 2000 plan is necessary after all, and to that we say, if you're a heavy internet user, have the means to afford one or simply want to try out hyperfast speeds when they do become available, go for it. However, you may already be satisfied when these boosts come into effect and find there's no need to switch plans or providers after all. Right now, there are some seriously attractive NBN deals on offer from some top-rated telcos. You can check out the most popular fast plans in the widget below.
The Guardian
09-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Greens say Labor must slash NBN chief's salary in exchange for support on anti-privatisation bill
The Greens say Labor must drastically cut the pay of the national broadband network's CEO, in exchange for their support on a bill to block any future privatisation of the publicly owned network. The party's amendments to Labor's bill include a salary cap for senior executives, placing a legal obligation on NBN services to remain 'affordable and accessible' to consumers, and providing cost-of-living relief for those who can't afford essential communication services. The latest NBN Co annual report showed then-CEO Stephen Rue on a remuneration package of $2.85m, including a $645,000 bonus. This is more than four-and-a-half times the prime minister's $607,471 annual salary. The year before, Rue earned $3.03m. Former Telstra executive Ellie Sweeney commenced as NBN Co's CEO and managing director in December – the company's first female leader. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email If Sweeney is on a similar package to Rue, the new rule would cut her pay by about $2.5m, as the amendment specifically limits senior executive pay to five times the average Australian's weekly earnings. The latest data from the ABS in May 2024 showed average weekly earnings for an adult working full-time was $1923.40, which would result in a cap of senior executive salaries at $500,084. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the current CEO's salary in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis was 'obscene'. '[The amendments] will cap the obscene salaries of the NBN Co CEO and other executives,' she said. 'Something is clearly wrong when the publicly owned NBN Co pays its executives millions of dollars while some Australians are struggling to pay their monthly internet bill or access a reliable service for a network Australians built and own.' The bill as it stands would make it an objective of the NBN Co Act that the company remains owned by the commonwealth, and removes the legislative conditions that could enable private ownership and control. Those conditions include a report by the Productivity Commission on the impact of the sale of NBN Co on the future affordability of services, telecommunications competition, and commonwealth budgets, as well as a declaration by the finance minister that the conditions are suitable for a sale. Labor will need the Greens and other crossbench support to pass the bill. The Coalition has refused to back it, calling the legislation a 'political wedge'. Hanson-Young is due to meet with the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, on the amendments this week. If the Greens make a deal, Labor can count on support from independent Tasmanian senator Tammy Tyrrell. Tyrrell told Guardian Australia a privatised NBN would 'come at the cost of regional areas like Tassie'. 'I'm happy to support something that will safeguard Tasmania's connection to the rest of the country. Any bill that protects regional areas from potential NBN privatisation is worth it,' she said. Independent Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe is also likely to back the bill, while Jacqui Lambie is yet to formalise her position, but has previously opposed the privatisation of commonwealth assets. The independent ACT senator, David Pocock, is also yet to make his position public. Last month Labor also announced $3bn to fund a national upgrade of the NBN's fibre-to-the-node infrastructure, which requires the ongoing use of copper lines. The government said the upgrades would reach 622,000 premises by 2030.
