Homes in the Canberra suburbs of Ainslie, Casey, Dickson, Kingston, Macgregor, Monash, and Yarralumla will be eligible for full fibre broadband from next year, the Federal Government announced today.
Across Australia, one million more homes and businesses will be able to upgrade their internet connection as part of the Australian Government’s plan for a better National Broadband Network (NBN).
Today’s list of eligible suburbs contains premises still served by the “outdated and unreliable” copper network, Michelle Rowland MP, Minister for Communications, said.
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The Albanese Government will invest $2.4 billion over four years to expand full-fibre access to 1.5 million additional premises by the end of 2025, including more than 660,000 premises in regional Australia.
NBN says it is on track to enable up to 10 million premises – up to 90 per cent of homes and businesses across Australia – to access wholesale download speeds between 500 megabytes per second and close to 1 gigabyte per second, by the end of 2025.
“The benefits of a world-class fibre broadband include faster upload and download speeds, and a more reliable connection,” Ms Rowland said. “The benefits are even more pronounced for larger households if many devices are used, as higher speeds means the whole family can be online at the same time.”
In just six years, data use has tripled on the NBN. That exponential growth is expected to continue as customer demands continue to grow in response to new technology, Ms Rowland said.
Eligible households can demand an upgrade when they order a higher speed plan than would be available to them over copper.
NBN Co expects eligible premises within today’s announced suburbs will be able to access a full-fibre upgrade from 2024.
The remaining locations to be upgraded as part of the Government’s investment in expanding full-fibre access are expected to be announced by early 2024.