NBN Co unveils high-level overview of rollout stats

NBN Co has announced it will publish a weekly dashboard charting its rollout progress and how it is tracking with key metrics as part of a transparency drive announced today.

The company published the first iteration of the dashboard as a PDF file this afternoon with historical data stretching back to the beginning of the current financial year. (pdf)

The file shows for the first time a delineation between passed brownfields premises that can carry retail internet services and those that can't (and are therefore classified as 'service class zero').

As of October 27, NBN Co had passed 229,398 premises in built-up areas of Australia, with 158,712 of those serviceable by retail service providers, and 70,686 deemed unserviceable.

The number of service class zero premises peaked in late September, according to NBN Co's statistics, and have since plateaued, although this coincides with a four-week period in which the rollout itself was halted.

NBN Co has passed just 1915 premises in built-up areas in the month since September 29.

The statistics show a clear flattening in the overall build rate over the past month as the company's focus turns to a large-scale operational review at the request of the new federal government.

iTnews reported earlier today that over half a million premises have also been cut out of NBN Co's brownfields fibre construction plans overnight, pointing to a far smaller future rollout scope for FTTP.

The dashboard goes some way to meeting a commitment made by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to increase transparency of the project after months of suspect numbers and the gradual shutdown of public data sources by NBN Co.

However, the dashboard does not provide the same granularity of data that now-removed resources — such as the Ready For Service spreadsheets — provided, meaning it is much more difficult to know when particular parts of the rollout are expected to be activated.

Granular data sources will be kept in a sales portal that is accessible only via NBN account managers, NBN Co quietly revealed last night.

NBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski did provide hope that the dashboard may be augmented with more readily-accessible data resources.

"The publication of the weekly metrics and clearer maps is a first step in providing for increased scrutiny and transparency of NBN Co and its activities," he said.

He provided no guidance on what future steps might entail.

Further clarification is being sought from NBN Co at the time of publication.