Half a million more homes added to NBN rollout footprint
New data released by the Australian Communications and Media Authority shows why we need the NBN
The increasing use of the internet by Australians, as outlined today by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, underlines why we as a country need better broadband.
According to the ACMA report, Australians’ Digital Lives, virtually every adult Australian is now active online at home and at work.
What’s more, our level of engagement online is intensifying as people download increasing amounts of data. As the ACMA says, in the three months to June 2014, total data downloaded in Australia grew by 53 per cent over the same quarter in 2013.
Hence our focus on accelerating the rollout of the National Broadband Network.
This week NBN Co, the company building and operating the NBN, added a further 550,000 homes and businesses to the national rollout footprint. They include houses, apartment blocks and office complexes in major regional centres such as Bendigo in Central Victoria and Bathurst in the NSW Central West; remote locations like Broome in WA; and the most populous cities in SA after Adelaide: Mt Gambier and Whyalla. Each area will be added to the NBN rollout maps when preliminary construction activities get underway.
All up, there are now more than 3.1 million premises where construction work is underway or set to get underway by September 2016. That’s on top of the 870,000 or so premises that can order an NBN service today.
So the rollout is clearly gaining momentum. And it will continue to do so as we incorporate more existing technologies into the mix. These are technologies remember, that are already capable of delivering high speed broadband and which will be upgraded further to deliver an even better performance. This week we switched on our Fibre-to-the-Building product. Fibre-to-the-Node and HFC services are set for launch before the end of the year.
This will complete the full launch of our Multi Technology Mix services. That will ensure all Australians can have access to fast broadband as soon as possible and delivered cost effectively.