NBN Co has given an update on its free fibre upgrade program, and it's gradually making progress to meet its promise to deliver better connections for millions of Aussies on depreciating fixed-line tech.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) measuring broadband quarterly report, one-third of Aussie homes and businesses are powered by fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) connections, and the tech accounts for 90% of underperforming services nationwide.
However, since March 2022, NBN Co has offered those on the diminishing FTTN network a free full fibre upgrade. During its FY24 half-yearly earnings call, the company reported that more than 197,000 customers had upgraded to fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connections in December 2023 — up by more than 107,000 compared to the same time in FY23.
In the report, the company stated it now receives at least 7,000 fibre orders per week. But on average, and based on the 107,000 connections setup in the past six months, around 4,100 homes were connected weekly. However, NBN Co CEO Stephen Rue has suggested that this rate has improved recently, with 6,000 premises connected just last week.
Rue noted in the report that the nearly 200,000 homes that have already upgraded "demonstrates customers' strong appetite for high-speed internet amid the consumption of increasing volumes of data" and that the network "remains best placed to deliver such speeds and capacity at scale".
However, it's worth mentioning that this won't be an overnight fix for those struggling with slow connections, as upgrades to the existing FTTN network are still rolling out — and after crunching some numbers, we speculate it'll continue to do so over the next eight years (at least).
NBN Co said that more than 50,000 kilometres of new fibre cables have been rolled out so far, extending full fibre access to 3.5 million homes with FTTN connections and 1.5 million with FTTC (fibre-to-the-curb) connections.
Additionally, more Aussie homes are set to be eligible for ultrafast speeds, as NBN Co expects at least 10 million premises to be able to receive 500Mbps-plus downloads by the end of 2025.
Rue said more than 8.4 million homes (75% of the fixed-line network) were now eligible to access ultrafast home internet speeds of 1,000Mbps. But this doesn't mean it's all FTTP tech; many hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) connections can also sign up for an NBN 1000 plan.
So, if you're one of the Aussie households that can take advantage of the FTTP upgrades, NBN Co estimates it'll take around 2-4 weeks between order and fibre installation. Once you've made the switch and can achieve superfast (or ultrafast) NBN speeds, here are some plans we recommend.
Best NBN 100 plan
Best NBN 250 plan
Best NBN 1000 plan
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