More Aussies will now be able to access ultra-fast broadband with the announcement made by NBN Co that an additional 100,000 homes and businesses across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia are eligible for an upgrade to their NBN connection.
The new areas selected by NBN Co in Fibre to the Node areas will mean that a total of 1.7 million premises, of around 2 million planned premises, are now eligible for upgrades to access on-demand ultra-fast broadband speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps).
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts Paul Fletcher said the NBN continues to assist more families and communities with access to ultra-fast broadband services.
“The Australian Government is delivering on our $4.5 billion network upgrades that will mean up to 75 per cent of premises in the fixed-line network are able to access ultra-fast broadband by 2023,” Minister Fletcher said.
Meanwhile, Minister for Finance Simon Birmingham said these network upgrades were further proof of NBN Co’s commitment to delivering better and faster internet to its residential and business customers.
“We are giving more homes and businesses across Australia the choice to upgrade their NBN connection which will allow them to access faster broadband speeds,” Minister Birmingham said.
“Our Government’s $4.5 billion investment towards network upgrades will ensure NBN Co can continue to meet the changing needs of its customers and forms part of our plan to make Australia a top ten data and digital economy by 2030.”
At the moment 42 per cent of the fixed-line network is gigabit-enabled. However, NBN Co announced last week that the first 50,000 premises were now eligible to upgrade to Fibre to the Premises, when they place an order with a retailer on eligible service.
NBN Co is committed to delivering on the $4.5 billion upgrades by 2023.
Source: Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts Media Release