Australia’s NBN launches first commercial services over HFC

Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) has launched the first commercial services using the former Telstra Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) network.

The roll out of the NBN, under the December 2013 strategic review, places emphasis on the existing hybrid fibre coaxial plant being used to build the NBN. The HFC networks of Telstra and Optus are being integrated into the NBN, in an attempt to reduce the cost of the project.

NBN officially switched on HFC services at the end of last month. It has repurposed Telstra network to make up the majority of the HFC services which will eventually be delivered to premises across the whole of Australia. Hybrid fibre-coaxial cable technology, which is also used to deliver Foxtel in Australia, is due to connect a total of 900,000 by September. NBN claims that HFC will eventually cover more than 3m premises.

The HFC launch is the latest step in the NBN rollout under the Government's revised multi-technology roadmap. In 2014, the coalition Government did away with the former Labor Government's fibre-focused broadband network in favour of a mix of technologies including fibre to the premises, fibre to the node (utilising legacy copper networks), HFC and satellite.