22nd January 2021

Announcements

What does the $3.5b nbn™ upgrade mean for Perth internet?

Written by Team Pentanet

22nd January 2021

Announcements

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Is the $3.5 billion dollar upgrade coming to your Perth home? What is this upgrade about? Is the nbn™ ‘finished’? How fast will it be? Will you have to pay anything? Let’s discuss.

The nbn™ is complete... sort of

After ten years and more than $50 billion, NBN Co has announced the initial phase of the National Broadband Network is now complete.

According to the NBN Co August Progress Report 7.8 million Australian households and businesses are now connected to the nbn™, with a further 4.3 million eligible to be connected.

Fibre for everyone... sort of

This latest announcement from NBN Co focuses on $3.5 billion to be spent over the next three years connecting 6 million Australian homes to fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology.

“NBN Co will allocate $3.5 billion to network investments that will benefit homes and small businesses across the Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN), Fibre-to-the-Curb (FTTC) and Hybrid-Fibre-Coaxial (HFC) networks.”

Does the nbn™ need upgrading? Sort of

Australia currently ranks 61st in the world for average internet download speed at 58.83Mbps, well behind the worldwide average of 73.58Mbps.

According to nNBN Co, this upgrade is to ‘meet future demand’.

The nbn™’s original charter was to provide fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) to every home and business in Australia.

This idea was scrapped by the freshly elected Liberal Government in 2010 and replaced with a ‘multi-technology mix’ approach, consisting of a range of fibre and wireless technologies incorporating existing copper networks

This announcement will give a significant percentage of homes in Australia the option to have fibre-to-the-premises installed at no cost.

Fibre-to-the-premises connections can presently achieve up to a gigabit per second speeds.

What's the catch? You MUST register

Details are scarce at this early stage, but as we understand it, construction will roll out over the next three years.

As the rollout approaches your suburb, you will have to register for the upgrade.

If you miss the boat and don’t register in time, you’ll have to pay to install the fibre yourself, which could cost anywhere up to $5,000, or more.

Are there nbn™ alternatives here in Perth?

Our Superfast Fixed Wireless is the gold standard for nbn™ alternatives offering speed, reliability and 100% local service.

Fixed Wireless delivers internet to your premises via a small dish installed on the roof that connects to our exclusive Pentanet network of towers.

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