NBN unveils new chief financial officer

Almost six months after appointing its former chief financial officer Stephen Rue as its chief executive, Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) company has unveiled its new CFO.

Philip Knox has been given the role, after previously serving as CFO of APN Outdoor, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and satellite company Austar United Communications.

"From his time at Austar Mr Knox has extensive experience in delivering telecommunications services across regional and remote Australia," NBN said.

Knox will commence as NBN CFO on February 6.

"Phil is an accomplished financial executive with extensive experience across the technology and media industries," Rue said on Wednesday morning.

"Phil has an outstanding track record of delivery and hands-on experience across key financial disciplines that will be critical in the final two years of the rollout."

Rue was appointed CEO in August 2018, stepping into the role following the departure of Bill Morrow on September 1.

"Given the unique nature of the NBN access network and the Australian telecommunications environment, with the end of the build phase only two years away, the board concluded that an internal candidate with firsthand experience of driving change and improvement throughout the company would be best placed to help ensure all Australians have access to fast broadband by 2020," NBN said in a statement at the time.

Rue had served as CFO for NBN since mid-2014, after filling the same role at News Corp Australia for 10 years.

NBN in November reported Q1 2019 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of negative AU$270 million, a 65 percent improvement from the negative AU$778 million reported a year ago, on revenue of AU$620 million, which is up 53 percent from AU$405 million.

NBN made AU$191 million in revenue from its fibre-to-the-node (FttN) network; AU$197 million from connectivity virtual circuit/network-network interface (CVC/NNI); AU$119 million from fibre-to-the-premises (FttP); AU$36 million from hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC); AU$21 million from fixed-wireless; AU$10 million from satellite; and AU$2 million from the new fibre-to-the-curb (FttC) network.

As of September 30, there were almost 4.4 million premises activated on the NBN: 2.3 million on FttN; 1.2 million on FttP; 438,334 on HFC; 254,400 on fixed-wireless; and 92,595 on satellite.

Premises ready to connect has grown to just over 7.3 million -- 3.8 million on FttN; 1.7 million on FttP; 621,268 on HFC; 618,253 on fixed-wireless; and 433,917 on satellite. FttC had 148,822 premises ready to connect and 39,146 premises activated as of the end of the quarter.

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