NBN Co appoints delivery partners to roll out fibre to one million homes and businesses

NBN Co has today awarded construction contracts to Ventia, Service Stream, Fulton Hogan Utilities, and Downer EDI to enable one million homes and businesses to upgrade to full fibre¹ by ordering an eligible wholesale higher speed tier. These premises form part of the 1.5 million premises to be upgraded under the Government’s $2.4 billion investment in the nbn^® network.  

The design and construction contracts cover the civil and fibre deployment in both metro and regional townships, and suburbs across Australia. Work commences this month and with some customers expected to benefit during 2024.   

Today’s announcement builds on nbn’s existing fibre upgrade investment already underway, which takes the total premises to 3 million. This is designed to enable eligible homes and businesses to access full fibre and faster broadband speeds² via their preferred internet provider³ by ordering an eligible wholesale higher speed tier.

Enhancements to the nbn network helping to deliver faster speeds and more data reflect and support business and societal changes over the last two years. The key benefits of upgrading to full fibre connections by choosing an eligible higher speed plan is expected to include a better overall experience when multiple people and devices are online in the home or business at the same time, faster downloads and uploads, improvements in the quality of online entertainment streaming and gaming, and a better experience for people working or studying at home.

According to Venture research commissioned by nbn⁴, since the start of the pandemic online health consultations have increased by 147 per cent, online secondary educational engagement has grown by 114 per cent and a third of people who can work from home now expect to continue doing so at least one day a week.

The company is also supporting growing demands from Australian businesses for faster speeds and more data. Research indicates that 40 per cent of businesses are using video conferencing, cloud storage or cloud-based software.

NBN Co is on track to enable up to 10 million premises, or approximately 90 per cent of homes and businesses across Australia, to access nbn Home Ultrafast, offering wholesale download speeds of 500 Mbps to close to 1 Gbps, by the end of 2025⁵.

Customers living and working in approximately 1.6 million⁶ premises currently can now place an order for an eligible higher-speed internet plan with an internet retailer. To find out if you’re eligible for an upgrade, use the Check Your Address function on the home page of the nbn website, or register for more information on future upgrades at nbn.com.au/FTTPupgrade. 

Kathrine Dyer, Chief Operating Officer at NBN Co, said:

“We are pleased to confirm the delivery partners that will continue the next phase of upgrade activities across one million more homes and businesses. To date, our delivery partners have laid the foundation for nbn full fibre customer connections, with more than 30,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable hauled into suburbs and townships across Australia.

“By pushing fibre deeper into communities, we are further supporting the tremendous benefits that the nbn network brings through online education, tele-health services, the ability to work from home, experience great gaming and streaming, connect more smart devices for added convenience, all the while strengthening social inclusion for those who need it most.

“We look forward to announcing the final 500,000 premises within the Government’s investment to upgrade the nbn network in coming months.”

The geographical scope of works for the respective contracts announced today are as follows:

¹ Full fibre is Fibre to the Premises (FTTP).

² Customer experience on nbn full fibre, including speed, depends on your internet provider, equipment quality and if you use the internet at peak times, etc. See more details here: You have a choice of speeds with your nbn powered plan | nbn (nbnco.com.au)

³ Conditions, eligibility criteria and costs will apply – please speak with your preferred provider. Eligibility criteria includes among other things, being designated by nbn as a simple premises and placing an order for an nbn powered plan based on an eligible wholesale speed tier. Additional costs may apply to providers, who may choose to pass this charge onto their customers. Not all providers offer plans based on the full range of wholesale speed tiers. Talk to your preferred provider for more information about availability and the right retail solution for your needs.

⁴ Source: Venture Insights, 'Australia's Digital Economy: Consumer Engagement with digital services'. 18/10/21, [internal report prepared for nbn].

⁵ Regardless of the retail service you purchase, the actual wholesale speeds delivered by nbn’s highest wholesale speed tiers of 500 to close to 1000 Mbps will be less than 1Gbps due to equipment and network limitations and the peak information rate may fall anywhere in this range. In addition, the HFC Home Ultrafast bandwidth profile downstream service provided to retail providers is a ranged profile with a maximum sustained information rate of 750Mbps. Reference to speeds are not end user speeds; they are wholesale layer 2 peak information rate bandwidth provided to retail providers.

⁶ 1.6 million premises is the sum of 700,000 premises currently served by FTTN and more than 900,000 premises currently served by FTTC.