Today, the NBN announced (see below) that another 300,000 homes and businesses across the country will become eligible for ultra-fast broadband by the end of 2023, a key part of the Coalition’s plan to deliver fibre to the premises (FTTP) on demand.
As part of the Coalition’s upgrade of the NBN which included a $4.5 billion investment in 2020, NBN is on track to enable up to 8 million premises across Australia to access ultra-fast broadband, speeds of 500 Mbps to close to 1 Gbps, by the end of 2023.
Our multi-technology mix plan, adopted in 2013, rolled out the NBN much more quickly than Labor’s plan. This was, of course, incredibly important during the pandemic.
Our rollout also makes a mockery of Labor’s previous flawed and irresponsible plan to overbuild the NBN and deliver FTTP to customers in every home and business (excluding low population towns and regions) regardless of whether they wanted it or not.
The Coalition’s NBN track record is clear. After we inherited a train wreck project in 2013, we worked hard to deliver ready to connect NBN broadband to over 12 million or 99 per cent of premises across Australia.
18 October 2022
NBN Co announces suburbs and towns where an additional 300,000 homes and businesses will become eligible for full fibre upgrades
NBN Co today revealed the latest list of suburbs and towns where an additional 300,000 homes and businesses currently served by Fibre to the Node (FTTN) will be able to benefit from the extension of fibre deeper into communities.
In total, NBN Co has now identified the areas where customers living and working in 2 million premises currently served by FTTN will become eligible to upgrade to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). Eligible customers that would like to upgrade to FTTP will need to order a plan based on nbn® Home Fast or higher.
It is the latest in a series of announcements the company has made since September 2020 when it first announced plans to progressively upgrade parts of the FTTN network to FTTP eligibility.
Following the identification of upgrade areas, the company then undertakes detailed design and construction of the local fibre network extensions, which can generally take around 12 to 18 months to complete.
To trigger a full fibre upgrade, eligible customers will need to place an order with a participating retailer for a plan based on an eligible wholesale speed tier. These include nbn’s three highest residential speed tiers: nbn® Home Fast, which offers wholesale download speeds of up to 100 Mbps; nbn® Home Superfast, which offers wholesale download speeds of up to 250 Mbps, or nbn® Home Ultrafast (FTTP), which offers wholesale download speeds of close to 1 Gbps.
Customers living and working in eligible premises within the suburbs and towns announced today are expected to be able to order a higher speed service by the end of 2023.
In March 2020, NBN Co announced that the first 50,000 customers served by FTTN had become eligible to upgrade to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). The company has subsequently made around 50,000 FTTN premises ready to order higher speed services per month, on average. It is on target to make around 550,000 FTTN premises eligible to upgrade to FTTP by 31 December 2022, and up to 2 million FTTN premises will become eligible to upgrade to FTTP by 31 December 2023.
The company is on track to enable up to 8 million premises across Australia to access nbn® Home Ultrafast, offering wholesale download speeds of 500 Mbps to close to 1 Gbps, by the end of next year.
To find out if their premises may be eligible to upgrade from FTTN to FTTP, customers are invited to register for updates at nbn.com.au/fttpupgrade
Kathrine Dyer, Chief Operating Officer at NBN Co, said:
“We are working to unlock new social and economic benefits by pushing fibre deeper into communities. In addition to the inherent speed benefits offered by Fibre to the Premises, these full fibre connections significantly reduce the number of copper connections in our network.
“Fibre is inherently more capable of delivering faster upload and download speeds, is generally more reliable than copper connections and reduces our maintenance and operating costs.
“So far, we have identified the suburbs and towns across Australia where customers living and working in around 2 million premises will be able to access the highest speeds currently available on the nbn® network, with download speeds of close to 1 Gbps.
“We are on track to achieve our goal of enabling around 8 million premises, or up to 75 per cent of homes and businesses on the fixed line network, to access nbn’s highest residential speed tiers with wholesale download speeds of 500 Mbps to close to 1 Gbps by the end of 2023.”