NBN Extends Fibre To Extra 100K Premises, Continues $4.5B Upgrade

The NBN Co has commenced extending fibre to another 100,000 premises this week, as it invests deeper into selected communities within metro and regional NSW, VIC, QLD, SA and WA.

The government-backed body is continuing its Hybrid Fibre Cable (HFC) network upgrade as part of a $4.5 billion network investment plan.

The upgrade seeks to offer download speeds of 500 Mbps – nearly 1 Gbps to around 625,000 premises – or around 25% of the HFC network footprint by November 2020.

The NBN Co is set to work closely with internet retailers in the coming months to define the process which will allow eligible customers to express interest in receiving a higher speed broadband service, and acquiring a fibre lead-in to their premises.

The organisation will progressively select, design and construct new fibre extensions over the next two years, and is aiming to pass around 2 million premises by 2023.

The NBN Co is set to make further announcements early next year about future rollout plans after consulting internet retailers.

The extension of fibre to service the 100,000 additional premises will cover parts of the following towns and suburbs:

• Belmont North, Charlestown, Toronto, Carramar, Castle Hill, Holsworthy, Liverpool, and Wetherill Park in New South Wales;
• Lyndhurst and Narre Warren in Victoria;
• Acacia Ridge, Browns Plains, Eight Mile and Oxenford in Queensland;
• Osborne in South Australia, and
• Cannington and Double View in Western Australia.

It marks the start of the NBN Co’s $4.5 billion network investment program, which seems to make the NBN’s highest wholesale speed tiers available (as demand arises) to around 8 million premises – or 75% of homes and businesses on the fixed line network by 2023.

“We are investing now and will be working hard in suburbs and towns throughout Australia over the next three years to make the nbn ready for the high-speed broadband needs and data demands of the future,’ states NBN Co Chief Executive Office, Stephen Rue.

“More than 72 per cent of our fixed line network is already capable of supporting wholesale download speeds of 100 Mbps or faster, and new demand for higher speed services is emerging quickly as customers realise the social, economic and lifestyle benefits that fast broadband can deliver.”

As COVID19 continued to shift behaviours during 2020, Rue states around 55,000 customers chose to upgrade their internet provider to plans offering speeds of around 100 Mbps or better.

“We see this demand for higher speed broadband services accelerating in the years ahead as more people connect more devices within their homes, and we continue to automate our homes, which inevitably requires faster download and upload speeds and greater capacity to be built into the network,” he adds.

Further information is available on the NBN Co’s website here.