NBN Co has fallen short of its fibre upgrade target. 

NBN Co has disclosed its fibre overbuild program's official take-up numbers, revealing that 106,000 premises have transitioned from fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) or fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) connections. 

The company's target was to migrate 121,000 FTTN premises and 36,000 FTTC premises to full fibre by June 30, resulting in a total of 157,000 transitions. 

However, NBN Co's report displays only 89,626 successful migrations, indicating a 42 per cent shortfall, or 67,374 premises.

Despite the setback, NBN Co remains optimistic, indicating an upward trend in uptake, leading to their FY24 objective of upgrading an additional 245,000 premises. 

Notably, over 2 million properties in the FTTN/C footprint have the potential to upgrade to a 100Mbps service or higher.

NBN Co's CEO, Stephen Rue, stresses that the progress of the fibre upgrade initiative should be evaluated from a long-term perspective rather than year-to-year. 

He pointed to a mix of factors, such as fewer retail service providers (RSPs) offering upgrades and the time needed for RSPs' IT systems to adapt, as contributors to the target miss. 

Rue also highlighted an imminent boost in marketing spend and RSPs' system readiness to facilitate a surge in orders and activities.

NBN Co's recent financials showed a total revenue of $5.27 billion for the year ending June 30, with a 3 per cent year-on-year increase, though the company still reported a loss of $1.12 billion. 

Nevertheless, this marked a 24 per cent improvement from the previous year. Capital expenditure on IT rose by $56 million to $306 million, attributed to increased software and system development investment.

Over the past year, NBN Co continued repaying its government loans, reducing the outstanding balance to $5.5 billion from $6.375 billion.