NBN’s focus should be to ‘deliver affordable broadband’, says TPG

One of the nation’s biggest broadband providers says Labor should be fixing areas where competition has broken down rather than building networks, as scores of Australians switch to satellite and 5G services.

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman says NBN’s satellite business was ‘in crisis’. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

One of the nation’s biggest broadband providers says Labor should be fixing areas where competition has broken down rather than building networks, as many Australians switch to satellite and 5G services.

A TPG spokesman told The Australian that it made little sense for the government to be further investing in networks that are ­already putting up competition.

“The primary focus of NBN should be on delivering affordable broadband to Australians, with investment focused on areas not served by existing infrastructure,” he said.

The comments came as the Albanese government committed to inject $3bn into the National Broadband Network, upgrading the connection of about 622,000 homes and businesses.

The upgrades, which will take until 2030 to complete, will see contractors replace copper connections from the node to the premise with fibre, allowing for high-speed connections with download speeds of up to 100mb per second.

But thousands of Australians, some of whom are fed up with the NBN, have already switched to satellite options offered by overseas competitors and 5G and 4G internet options which are often cheaper and require little more than a modem if customers are in a connectivity area.

The government-run telco’s latest figures show dwindling interest in NBN products, with connections rising to 8.62 million homes and businesses in November last year, from 8.58 million the previous year.

That figure is about two thirds of the total of 12.51 million homes and businesses that have the option to connect.

Satellite connections dropped from 85,893 to 83,625 between July and November last year, with fixed wireless customers having dropped from 398,783 to 397,941 over the same period. Both services saw more than 3100 customers drop over the five-month window.

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said NBN’s satellite business was “in crisis”.

“The NBN satellite business had lost almost a quarter of its customers under Labor … it is getting smashed by Elon Musk and Starlink,” he said.

The NBN did experience growth in its fixed-line connections, which rose from 11.36 million to 11.41 million.

The Albanese government’s investment arrives just days after Telstra announced it had committed to delivering more satellite connectivity options across the country, targeting Australians in regional and rural areas.

That deal was with Elon Musk’s Starlink and will use a constellation of satellites to connect directly to a consumer’s phone provided they have a direct line of sight to the sky.

Telstra is the second telco to do so, following its nearest competitor Optus. Both telcos have already inked further deals with Mr Musk, onselling packages via Starlink’s hardware and satellite constellation.

Optus had previously commented on the viability of satellite networks during natural disasters, with satellite connections unaffected by landslides and floods providing the hardware had not been impacted.

The Singapore-run telco had previously committed to delivering direct-to-handset capabilities by December last year but is understood to have missed the timeline due to regulatory issues.

“Optus is working with SpaceX to conduct local testing and we’re re-evaluating our timelines to deliver this product with the best possible experience for customers,” a spokesman told The Australian.

The NBN said the upgrades, which will see copper connecting to homes replaced with fibre, would take five years to complete. NBN has committed $800m to the project.

NSW will benefit the most from the upgrades where 164,000 homes and businesses across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Central Coast and outer Sydney and the city’s west and south west will be upgraded.

NBN chief executive Ellie Sweeney said the upgrades could support about 10,000 jobs, create 4000 businesses and increase the GDP by $10.4bn over the next decade, citing independent modelling by Accenture.

“Fast and reliable broadband boosts industry, creates jobs, sparks innovation and strengthens social and economic participation. The nation relies on the NBN. It carries more than 80 per cent of the nation’s data,” she said.

Originally published as NBN’s focus should be to ‘deliver affordable broadband’, says TPG