NBN Co to release FTTB product in Q1 2015
NBN Co expects to launch its initial fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) product release in the first quarter of next year, according to its updated Integrated Product Roadmap (PDF), published today.
The national broadband company's Integrated Product Roadmap provides details on feature releases as well as key "customer experience enhancements" provided over the next two years.
New items on the latest roadmap include the launch of interim satellite capacity augmentation, which has been scheduled for this month, but not committed, while the first quarter of 2015 should see NBN Co launch its FTTB initial product release — also uncommitted.
July will see NBN Co begin consultation on the process and systems for the migration of users from a temporary POI to a permanent POI, and consult with industry on AVC/CVC pricing.
The fourth quarter of this year will see the availability of sandpit test environment for RSPs and the commencement of business readiness testing for FTTB deployments — scheduled for December — according to the document, along with the introduction of status and metallic line test for UNI-V and further usability enhancements.
"For the first time, we have released information on our updated product roadmap which includes an estimated timeframe of when we will be offering FTTB services to our ISP customers," said an NBN Co spokesperson.
"We are also continuing our FTTB pilot in inner-city Melbourne suburbs and are currently in the process of measuring and recording the customer experience of the homes and businesses who have signed-up," the spokesperson said.
Last week it was revealled the trial of fibre to the node technology in Melbourne had stalled, while Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced NBN Co and Telstra had signed a deal for 206,000 premises across regional Queensland and New South Wales to be connected to the NBN by fibre to the node.
Also scheduled for the first quarter of next year is the launch of NBN Co's cell site access service, which will provide connectivity between cell sites and NBN Co points of interconnect, along with the commencement of RSP onboarding for FTTB services.
The spokesperson said there was no further update on the estimated timing for NBN Co’s fibre-to-the-node or HFC products.
As of 22 June, NBN Co reported it had activated 206,043 premises nationwide, according to its latest weekly progress report summary (PDF).