Additional €1.4 bn for Australian nbn

Australia’s government has announced a new €1.4 bn investment over the next four years. 1.5 million FTTN- connected homes and businesses can upgrade to FTTH.

Australia's National Broadband Network receives extra €1.4 bn to build out full fibre

Australia’s state-owned nbn Co was established in 2009. As of June 2023, the cumulative number of premises that had active nbn connections in Australia was 8.56 m. With a new investment, the Australian government plans improve the nbn. According to the government, 660,000 rural premises and around 10 million homes and businesses will have access to top download speeds of around 1 Gbit/s by late 2025.

The nbn aims to extend high-speed broadband access to 100% of the Australian population, ensuring that every household and business could benefit from the digital economy. This is particularly significant for remote and rural areas, previously underserved by existing infrastructure.

Rolling out FTTH networks across Australia presents several challenges, largely due to the country's unique geographical, economic, and infrastructural factors. For one thing, Australia is characterized by its truly vast land area and relatively low population density, especially in rural and remote areas. Extending fiber to every home in such regions involves long distances with high costs for infrastructure development, maintenance, and operational efficiencies. The investment required for laying fiber can be substantial. These costs can impact the affordability of services for end-users and the return on investment for providers.

As of the latest updates, significant progress has been made in the nbn rollout. Last February, 12.3 million Australian homes and businesses were able to connect to the nbn access network – compared with 12.2 million a year before. 8.6 million homes and businesses were connected to a plan over the nbn access network. 74% of homes and businesses are on a 50Mbps (download) wholesale speed plan or higher.

“Reliable, quality, high-speed internet is not a luxury or nice-to-have: it is essential 21st century infrastructure,” says Michelle Rowland, Australia’s Minister for Communications. “This commitment will help to ensure no one is left behind, including in regional, rural, and remote communities, and many vulnerable Australians. Faster more reliable full fibre connections are already delivering productivity benefits for Australian consumers and businesses, with nbn users saving over 100 hours and $2,580 per year from avoided travel time and costs, working from home and undertaking tasks online.”

FTTN vs FTTH

The difference between Fiber-to-the-Node (FTTN) and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) primarily lies in how close the fiber optic cable comes to an end user's location in a broadband network. In an FTTN setup, the fiber optic cables run from the broadband service provider to a central node in a neighborhood or area. This potentially limits speeds due to the use of copper lines for the last segment. Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), involves running fiber optic cables directly to each home or business, offering higher speeds and greater bandwidth potential.

About Australia’s National Broadband Network

The nbn system consists of the provision of broadband services over a mix of three technologies: optic fibre, fixed wireless, and next-generation satellite. The Commonwealth established nbn Co to design, build and operate the network. This government-owned entity is classed as a government business enterprise (GBE). The nbn is being developed as a wholesale service which in turn is accessed through retailers.

Currently, nbn is on track to enable up to 10 million premises (90 %) of fixed-line 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 2025.

Find out more about the NBN

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Additional €1.4 bn for Australian nbn