More premises nbn ready by Christmas in TAS

nbn is within sight of hitting the major construction milestone of 200,000 premises ready for service in Tasmania, rounding out a huge year in which the network footprint has increased by more than 65 per cent in the State.

All eligible premises in Tasmania are now either finished, under construction or in advanced planning, with the rollout in Tasmania anticipated to be finished by the middle of 2018.

In fact, more premises have been added to the footprint during 2016 in Tasmania than at any time in the history of the rollout in this state.

Meanwhile, nbn delivery partners are working hard to declare around 2,000 more connections ready for service by Christmas – before continuing the construction momentum into the New Year.

During 2016, approximately 70,000 premises in Tasmania were added to the footprint, taking the grand total of Tasmanian premises ready for service to around 188,000, or approximately 67 per cent of the state.

Construction occurred this year in parts of Hobart, Launceston, Evandale, Devonport, Burnie, Ulverstone, Penguin, Westbury, Tranmere, Howrah, Bicheno, Cambridge, Dodges Ferry, Exeter, Legana and New Norfolk.

During 2016, nbn’s delivery partners added an average of more than 1,300 premises to the footprint every week – up from 271 average per week in late 2014.

Of all states, Tasmania has the highest signup rate for the nbn™ network in Australia. 

nbn has continued to rollout fixed wireless coverage via a string of towers in regional areas.

And this year nbn launched its commercial Sky Muster^TM satellite service – providing access to fast broadband to remote and isolated Tasmanian premises.

The construction effort is an important step toward the national goal of connecting eight million premises to the nbn™ network by 2020.

nbn Corporate Affairs Manager Tasmania, Russell Kelly, said:

“This year we promised to ramp up the construction rollout and we have delivered.

“It is a credit to all at nbn, our delivery partners and the many subcontractors who have been out there in streets every day connecting Tasmania house-by-house.

“One of the year’s highlights was finishing the rollout in Launceston – it’s now 100 ready for service. Hobart is now around 90 per cent ready for service, and our delivery partner crews are now working solidly in the major population centres of the North West Coast.

“Last week nbn also announced that we have begun planning for fixed line rollout to the West Coast towns of Queenstown, Zeehan and Rosebery, and fixed wireless to Strahan.

“This is the final piece of the puzzle for Tasmania – the rollout is now fully known and locked in.”

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Notes to editors

• Progress of the rollout of the nbn™ network can be found online here
• Weekly progress data is online here
• nbn provides services to its wholesale customers, telephone and internet service providers, and does not provide services directly to end users.