The National Broadband Network (NBN) is a major upgrade to Australia’s fixed line telephone and internet infrastructure to provide Australian premises with access to high speed broadband and telephony services.

NBN Co Limited (NBN Co), a Commonwealth company, was established in 2009 to design, build and operate the NBN.

NBN Co projects that 8.1 million premises in Australia will have an active NBN service by 30 June 2021, with 95 per cent of these made using fixed line technology.

NBN Co’s responsibilities regarding migrating a premises onto the NBN include building the network to make premises serviceable, supplying wholesale products to retail service providers, working with stakeholders to activate and assure services, contracting technicians to carry out network repairs and maintenance, and undertaking public and industry awareness and education activities about the network rollout and migration processes.

The internet has become a fundamental utility for the majority of Australians. The NBN rollout represents a substantial investment of public funds, and the rollout is due for completion at the end of 2020. The process of migrating to the NBN will affect the majority of Australian residents and businesses, and there is a clear public interest in minimising interruptions to service continuity during this process. The migration process will continue beyond the completion of the rollout, and it is therefore timely to examine the effectiveness of NBN Co’s operations to support service continuity throughout the migration process.

The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of NBN Co’s service continuity operations relating to the migration of telecommunication services to the NBN.

The audit examined NBN Co’s operations from 16 March 2018 until 28 March 2019 in order to assess its effectiveness against contemporary industry settings.