The federal government comes through with a pre-election promise to help NBN Co get through its 2022 FTTN to FTTP upgrade plan.
An additional 1.5 million homes and businesses currently served by Fiber to the Node (FTTN) can upgrade to Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) thanks to the new investment.
NBN Co has finished compiling a list of areas that will receive network upgrades across Australia, and 300,000 additional houses will now be eligible for infrastructure enhancements.
With this new funding, NBN will announce which areas and towns will be included in future programmes to extend fibre to 1.5 million new premises over the coming months.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says the $2.4 billion in funding would be made available over four years beginning in 2022-23 as an ‘equity investment.
According to NBN Co it would announce where it would now extend its overbuild of FTTN “in coming months.”
Stephen Rue, Chief Executive Officer at NBN Co said we welcome the Government’s additional $2.4 billion investment in the nbn® network.
“The nbn® network is Australia’s digital backbone and the performance of the network underpins Australia’s global competitiveness and the economic future of our nation.”
“The measure of this success hinges on NBN Co’s ability to grow the capability and capacity of the network to keep ahead of the nation’s digital demand.” said Rue
The fibre-based NBN that was originally specified by the government as a ‘repair job’ has been built out using multiple access technologies, including copper.
NBN Co previously announced it was spending $4.5 billion on the program and published a long list of suburbs and towns that will be eligible for upgrades first.
In total, NBN Co has now identified the areas where customers living and working in 2 million premises currently served by FTTN will become eligible to upgrade to FTTP.
More suburbs can now sign up for an NBN upgrade through a participating online retailer, as long as they live in one of the appropriate locations and customers can now place an order for one on NBN Home Fast or higher, provided they live in one of the suitable locations.
NBN Co was expected to add around 60,000 FTTN premises each month across Australia, on average.
In addition to 550,000 FTTN premises becoming eligible to switch to FTTP by the end of December 2022, up to two million FTTN homes will be able to switch to FTTP by the end of December 2023.
