NBN Co is redirecting $200 million of wireless funding into HFC and FTTC.

Reports last week revealed that NBN Co removed 130,449 non-existent premises from its fixed wireless and satellite footprints, after finding that they did not exist.

NBN Co says the discovery of 91,380 non-existent premises in the fixed wireless rollout freed $200 million in planned capital expenditure.

It has now been diverted to other parts of the network.

The finding was well-timed, as NBN Co is facing increased costs in the hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) and fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) portions of its network.

“From FY19-22, we will be directing additional capex into the upgrade, development and rollout of HFC and FTTC access technologies,” an NBN Co spokesperson has told local tech media reporters.

“The FTTC capex requirement is $0.3 billion [$300 million] higher (than the $2.7 billion forecast in the previous corporate plan) due to greater civil works required in the build.

“HFC is $0.4 billion [$400 million] higher (than the $2.8 billion forecast in the previous Corporate Plan) due to greater civil works, a higher volume of new lead-in conduits required to be built and the reduced number of self-installs.”