Updated: NBN Co reports $47.8M in revenue

Capital expenditure also increases to $1.19 billion as the company builds out the national network

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NBN Co on Friday reported revenue of $47.8 million and an increase in capital expenditure by $396 million to $1.19 billion for its half year ending December 31, 2013 as it expands the national broadband network.

Revenue was generated from 130,759 premises (up from 70,100) with an active NBN service across all technologies at an average revenue per user of $36.50 per month. The ongoing network rollout also drove an increase in operating expenditure by $167 million to $500.4 million.

NBN Co’s fibre service was the biggest contributor to growth, accounting for 72 per cent of the 96,000 overall increase in end users.

“At the end of the current half, fibre users accounted for 61 per cent of total active end users and we expect to see growth in fixed line services continue to drive revenue growth in the foreseeable future as the footprint expands," said Robin Payne, CFO at NBN Co said on Friday.

The number of fixed wireless users jumped to 6,500 over the period compared to 1,000 a year earlier. There are now 44,000 users of NBN Co’s interim satellite service, up from 23,000 a year earlier.

Meanwhile, NBN Co has also recorded a $715 million operating loss after tax.

Payne said that the company expected to continue to report operating losses for the next few years as it builds out the network.

“This is entirely consistent with being at the early stages of a large infrastructure project where significant revenues will only start to flow once we have built a more substantial part of the network,” he said.

Total assets were $7.7 billion over the half year period, up from $3.5 billion in the corresponding period in December 2012. NBN Co has also received $6.48 billion equity from the government, of which $1.25 billion was received during the half year.

Read: Telstra defends state of its copper network.

Read: NBN Co starts weekly progress reports.

Read: New website identifies NBN blackspots.

NBN Co confirmed on Friday that it was negotiating with Telstra to rent the telco's copper lines for fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) trials in Epping in northern Melbourne and Umina on the NSW central coast.

It is also undertaking a fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) pilot, and expects to being the transition to an “optimised multi-technology mix” from calendar 2015, as set out in the strategic review.