nbn has announced that starting from today, it will not require high-speed plans to order full fibre upgrades for all 860,000 customers currently in the Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) footprint.

FTTC currently uses a mix of fibre and legacy copper cabling to connect homes and businesses to the nbn network. A full fibre upgrade replaces the remaining copper - from the curb- with fibre optic cable all the way to the premises. This helps to deliver a connection that is more reliable, resilient and can access faster speeds

Under previous eligibility criteria, most customers served by FTTC must order a residential broadband service based on the nbn wholesale speed (100/20 Mbps) or above to qualify for an upgrade to FTTP. These changes are designed to enable customers to contact their internet provider to request an upgrade to full fibre, on whatever speed plan meets their needs.  

Premises upgrading from FTTC to FTTP under nbn’s Full Fibre Upgrade for Complex Multi-Dwelling Properties program are already exempt from the requirement to order a high-speed tier and that will remain unchanged.

nbn is prioritising the FTTC network for accelerated transition from copper as it has higher fault rates than nbn’s other copper-based networks.

More than 1.3 million customers have already upgraded from copper-based connections to full fibre under the existing programs making it the dominant technology at around 38 per cent of nbn connections. About 45,000 fibre upgrades were completed in May alone, which was 19 per cent higher year-on-year.

Customers can check whether their address is eligible for an upgrade to nbn’s fastest and most reliable home connection on the nbn website. 

Bec Heap, Executive General Manager Products and Pricing at NBN Co, said:

“More Australians than ever are upgrading to full fibre and realising the benefits of greater reliability, faster speeds, and better customer experience.

This change makes it easier for even more Australians to experience those benefits, while accelerating the removal of ageing nbn copper from the network.    

“Full fibre not only offers multi-gig speeds, but is also far more reliable, more responsive, and more resilient through storms, floods and fires.

“The scalability of fibre means we’re not only delivering a better service today, but ensuring our network can continue to grow with the rapidly evolving needs of customers for decades to come.” 

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