nbn will make services available to more than 20,000 homes and businesses on Australia’s central coast (NSW).
The first commercial FTTN services were connected in Belmont, New South Wales in September 2015 and now the central coast and Hunter regions have access to the FTTN-based network.
The nbn rollout is gathering pace with more than 8,200 homes and businesses in Gorokan and Belmont now able to order a service on the nbn FTTN network. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses will be able to connect to superfast speeds of greater than 50 megabits per second before the end of 2015.
Communications Minister, Senator Mitch Fifield, and Member for Dobell, Karen McNamara, have officially launched Telstra’s retail broadband plans over the nbn fibre-to-the-node network. Other retailers such as iiNet have also begun selling services.
“This is great news for the Central Coast, and proof of this Government’s delivery to our region,” Mrs McNamara said.
Under the Coalition Government’s broadband policy, nbn has shaved years off construction time while still delivering broadband to more than nine million premises nationwide over the next three years.
By using the existing copper infrastructure running into homes, nbn can quickly build out the network, saving on construction costs and reducing the time residents must wait for broadband upgrades.
nbn is working with delivery partners to recruit and train workers to build and operate the network in coming years. nbn has launched a campaign encouraging school-leavers to consider a career in telecommunications construction and maintenance. The current nbn construction workforce is expected to double to 9000 jobs over the next few years.
nbn’s FTTN services will deliver maximum wholesale speeds to retail services providers of up to 100Mbps for downloading and up to 40Mbps for uploading.
