The government has agreed to an additional $3 billion of federal funding into the National Broadband Network (NBN) to upgrade the network as it aims to improve internet speeds at 622,000 premises via access to fibre connections.
The government’s investment will be undertaken alongside a separate $800 million commitment from the NBN Co.
The latest funding takes the total equity injection from the government since the NBN’s launch in 2008 to more than $35 billion. The Productivity Commission in 2021-22 put the market value of NBN Co at $19.5 billion.
“Keeping Australians connected at an affordable price is a vital national project. Rolling out high-speed internet builds Australia’s future,” said Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
Modelling by Accenture has reportedly found that the latest fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) upgrade programme will provide a $10.4 billion cumulative increase in GDP over the next decade.
It further suggests that individual households could save more than 100 hours and $2,580 per year in “avoided travel time and costs” from accessing faster broadband.
The new FTTN upgrades that will deliver access to higher internet speeds for around 622,000 additional premises is set to be completed by 2030.
When the upgrade programme is complete, more than 94% of premises on the fixed line network – over 11 million homes and businesses – will have access to connections enabling speeds of up to 1 Gbps.
“Fast and reliable broadband is essential infrastructure now, in 2025, and in the long term. That’s why we’re committed to working with NBN Co to finish the job of upgrading the network to give thousands more Australians access to world-class broadband speeds,” said Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland.
Recently, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a report as part of its Measuring Broadband Australia programme that continues to monitor the broadband performance for NBN fixed-line services.
In September 2024, the average download speed for NBN fixed-line connections during the busy hours (7-11pm, Monday-Friday) was at 100.9 per cent of the plan speed. This result was consistent with the previous quarter’s result of 100.4 per cent observed during May 2024.
During September 2024, the average rate of outages per day on fixed-line NBN connections was 0.19 across the service providers featured in the report. The average rate of outages per day was 0.1 for services on other superfast networks and 0.18 for NBN very high-speed services.