NBN have announced that half of the Australian population is now able to connect to the National Broadband Network.
After reaching the milestone halfway point of the network rollout, NBN said that over 5.7 million homes and businesses are now able to sign up for a service.
“Nationwide access to fast broadband will become the platform to launch Australia into the next phase of its digital future – it will change what our jobs will look like, where we will live and how we fare on a global scale,” said NBN CEO Bill Morrow.
Up to 100,000 new properties are being added each week according to NBN, with plans for further construction also announced for suburbs within capital cities, as well as the Gold Coast, Gladstone, Bendigo, Port Macquarie and Geelong.
“We are seeing great demand for fast broadband across the country – there are currently around three in four homes and businesses who have signed-up to services over the nbn network following the 18 month window they are provided to make the switch. Our team will continue to ramp-up the rollout of the network to help meet this demand in the coming months as we start further construction work across the capital cities and outer metro areas,” Morrow said.
NBN said it expects to hit the three-quarter point in mid-2018 before finally completing the network in 2020. Problems associated with connecting 200,000 homes to the network are not expected to impact the overall timeline.
