NBN Co Blog

Australia will become a Gigabit Nation before the end of the year when NBN Co releases a broadband product that delivers wholesale upload and download speeds that far exceed those available to households today.

NBN Co's wholesale customers - internet service providers - will be able to order the new product from December.

ISPs will develop retail plans based on the 1 Gigabit - or 1000 Mbps - product. These plans will be available to families and businesses nationwide with access to the fibre network.

In-home sensors that can help older people live in their homes for longer. The broadband-enabled sensors detect heat, humidity, movement, utility use and others variables to determine whether someone is eating properly or is becoming susceptible to a fall.

A museum robot that lets people in remote communities or those in nursing homes explore and experience the museum just as if they were walking around themselves. Remote visitors control the robot's "head", a 360 degree camera that allows them to choose what they're looking at and zoom in and out.

Home-based cardiac care that allows rehabilitation for heart disease patients without them having to attend a traditional hospital or clinic based program. Using a combination of mobile phones and the internet, patients collect clinical data such as blood pressure, and record physical activity in their own time. Core components of the program such as education, behaviour modification and psychological counselling are delivered via mobile phone, and are informed by the patient's data collection

These are just some of the projects the CSIRO is working on with its partners as it plans for the day when just about every Australian has a high-speed internet connection and investigates how this can be used to drive economic growth and improve productivity.

Cable maker Prysmian has hit a key milestone after supplying its millionth kilometre of optical fibre to the National Broadband Network.

The fibres are supplied in parallel arrays called ribbons that make it easier and more efficient to splice them together

Prysmian manufactures the ribbon cables for NBN at its factory in the Sydney suburb of Dee Why. The company has committed to source 80 per cent of the value of the contract within Australia. It invested heavily in its facilities Dee Why to ensure its specialist fibre optic cables could be manufactured locally.

Electronics giant Sony today unveiled its latest PlayStation games console, which will make greater use of high speed internet for streaming games and playing them remotely, as well as social networking.

At an event in New York, Sony revealed its PlayStation 4 would allow live streaming of gameplay in real-time, letting friends in other locations watch the play and even allowing game makers to act as "directors" guiding players along.

It is the latest entertainment application that will rely on high speed internet to achieve its full potential.

Smartphone use in Australia has doubled in a single year, with almost half of the population now owning one, according to a report released today.

Take-up soared by 104 per cent to 8.67 million units over the 12 months to May 2012, according to research released today by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Smartphones and tablets: Take-up and use in Australia found that 9.2 million Australians went online via their mobile phone and 4.4 million accessed the internet using a tablet in the six months to May 2012.

What does this have to do with broadband? As it happens, quite a bit.