nbn rollout plans released

A three-year construction plan detailing the rollout sequence for the nbn to network over nine million homes and businesses across the country by 2018 has been released allowing industry and consumers to find out when the nbn will reach their neighbourhood.

The rollout forecast includes metropolitan areas containing almost three million premises across six Australian cities, where existing hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cable networks will be upgraded and integrated into the nbn.

The government said that by using the existing copper and cable infrastructure running into homes, nbn can complete the network sooner and at a reportedly significantly lower cost to taxpayers.

By September 2018, the plan is to have nbn access or construction underway to:

• 2.8 million in New South Wales
• 2.5 million in Victoria
• 1.9 million in Queensland
• 970,000 in Western Australia
• 750,000 in South Australia
• 72,000 in NT
• 134,000 in the ACT

Tasmania is expected to be the first state to be fully networked with fast broadband access by this time.

The new plan also outlines nbn’s plan for its multitechnology mix rollout, which anticipates that by late 2018:

• over 5.6 million homes will have access or an nbn connection under construction through fibre to the node (FTTN), basement or premises;
• nearly three million homes and businesses will be covered by HFC;
• over 540,000 homes and businesses will be covered by fixed wireless.

There are currently 1.3 million available connections and 600,000 activated customers.

For more information, visit www.nbn.com.au/3yearplan.