Just as Telstra (ASX: TLS.AX) moves ahead with its agreement to sell its wireline network to the Australian government and their National Broadband Network initiative, Telstra has seen a fifth of the customers located in the coverage area of its Fiber to the Home (FTTH) trial migrate off of copper-based broadband.
At this point, only about 300 homes have signed up for the FTTH service, which is being offered to consumers via Telstra, sub-wholesalers and other competitive service providers, including Internode. To date, the FTTH network infrastructure covers about 1,500 premises that Telstra says were deemed a "broadband blackspot." The results of the trial will be given to NBN Co. as they construct their national FTTH network.
While neither Telstra nor Internode would reveal what portion of the 300 customers they signed up directly, Simon Hackett, Internode's managing director, did say that his company was encouraged by the results of the trial. "We've certainly signed up enough customers to form a valid set of test cases," he said.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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