NBN Co kicks off FTTN upgrade program

NBN Co has kicked off the commercial launch of its fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) to fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) upgrade program, covering 50,000 premises.

Under the program, premises with a FTTN connection can place an order to upgrade their connection on the National Broadband Network (NBN) with a NBN Home Fast, NBN Home Superfast or NBN Home Ultrafast plan, which offer speeds of up to 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps and close to 1 Gbps, respectively.

The FTTN upgrades were first flagged in September 2020 as part of a $3.5 billion investment into the NBN, which also flagged improving speeds on its hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network up to 100 Mbps with the option of on-demand access to 1 Gbps.

The first set of suburbs and towns to be given the all-clear for a NBN upgrade are:  

• NSW: Aberglasslyn, Bella Vista, Cameron Park, Canley Vale, Castle Hill, Cherrybrook, Chipping Norton, Croydon, Croydon Park, Darlinghurst, Edgeworth, Erina, Glenhaven, Green Valley, Hunterview, Kingswood, Kurnell, Lyndhurst, Melrose Park, Norwest, Pleasure Point, Rutherford, Singleton Heights, St Albans, St Clair, Terrigal, Thornton, Villawood, Voyager Point, Wattle Grove, West Pennant Hills and Woodlands.
• Victoria: Bayswater, Bayswater North, Braybrook, Cranborne North, Hampton Park, Lynbrook, Narre Warren, Rowville, Sunshine and Sunshine North.
• Queensland: Burleigh Waters, Gilston, Highland Park, Mudgeeraba, Robina, Varsity Lakes and Worongary.
• South Australia: Ascot Park, Athol Park, Bowden, Burton, Clovelly Park, Dudley Park, Edwardstown, Ethelton, Greenwith, Mawson Lakes, Mitchell Park, Parafield Gardens, Paralowie, Renown Park, Semaphore, Semaphore Park, Semaphore South, South Plympton, West Lakes, West Lakes Shore and Woodville North.
• Western Australia: Alexander Heights, Beckenham, Doubleview, Gwelup, Innaloo, Karrinyup, Langford, Marangaroo and Thornlie.

In addition, Brad Whitcomb, chief customer officer at NBN Co, said that more locations are anticipated to be made available for upgrades soon.

“Each month throughout this year, we expect to make an additional 60,000 or so premises currently served by FTTN eligible for FTTP upgrades, giving around 600,000 households and businesses access to our highest speed services by the end of 2022,” he said. 

“With more devices connected in almost every home, and more people working from home, studying from home and streaming entertainment, the need for speed is becoming more important.

“We are on track to achieve our goal of enabling around 8 million premises, or up to 75 per cent of homes and businesses on the fixed line network, to access NBN's highest speed tiers with wholesale download speeds of 500 Mbps to close to 1 Gbps by the end of 2023.”

Released in February, NBN Co’s financial results for the first half of FY22 showed revenue from business customers increased to $493 million, up 24 per cent from $397 million in the first half of FY21.

At the time, the national broadband network builder said it was on schedule to launch the program.