Australians feel the need, the need for speed: nbn reveals plan to turbo-charge high-speed tiers
NBN Co today launched a proposal to provide five times faster download speeds on its popular nbn Home Fast product, which would see wholesale download speeds accelerate from 100/20 Mbps to 500/50 Mbps1 at no extra wholesale cost to retailers.
NBN Co is proposing to provide the accelerated speeds to customers connected to the nbn® network via Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) technologies.
The company is also proposing to triple the wholesale download speed of its nbn Home Superfast product from 250/25 Mbps to 750/50 Mbps1 and increase the wholesale speeds of its highest residential speed tier, nbn Home Ultrafast, from 500-1000/50 Mbps to 750-1000/50-100 Mbps1, also at no extra wholesale cost to retailers.
The accelerated speeds would be made available to customers who are already using one of the three highest-speed products, and to those who upgrade to one of those three higher speed tiers in the future.
The proposed acceleration of the speed tiers is in response to the step-change in technology adoption and usage in Australia and globally. The move leverages the growing capabilities of fibre connectivity.
The new turbo-charged speed tiers would be available across the company’s HFC and FTTP networks with customers in eligible Fibre to the Node (FTTN) and Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) locations that will be able to access the proposed speed tiers by upgrading to FTTP. As part of the proposal, NBN Co has indicated that it intends to relax the threshold2 for customers in premises served by FTTC to be eligible to upgrade to a full fibre (FTTP) connection by ordering an nbn Home Fast 100/20 Mbps product.
Customers can check if their home or business is served by HFC or FTTP, or eligible to upgrade to FTTP and access faster speeds at nbn.com.au/fibreupgrade.
The company is seeing strong demand for full fibre upgrades and higher speed tiers with approximately 7,000 homes and businesses per week, on average, upgrading to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP).
The acceleration of nbn’s three highest speed residential products is designed to meet customers’ growing need for reliable, high-speed, high-capacity and low-latency broadband with the proliferation of more internet-connected devices in the home or business.
Speed and capacity are becoming increasingly important considerations for NBN Co in the way it provisions its network and resets its products, particularly as the number of concurrent internet-connected devices in the average home continues to grow.
In Australia, data demand and usage has doubled in the last five years, with the average household consuming 443 gigabytes3 per month across 22 internet-connected devices4, which is a significant increase from 40 gigabytes of monthly data use across approximately seven internet-connected devices, on average, 10 years ago.
The company expects this to grow to 33 devices per household by 2026 and 40 devices, on average, by the end of the decade. This will be driven by increased use of high- and super-high-definition streaming on 4K TVs, increased gaming, and the proliferation of cloud computing, generative artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality, and as people continue to expect higher quality video conferencing and computing capabilities while working and studying at home.
For example, a recent Fortnite patch was around 25 gigabytes, which would take around 73 minutes to download, and consume all of the available bandwidth, on a standard nbn 50/20 Mbps plan. The same patch would take around 36 minutes to download on the current nbn Home Fast 100/20 Mbps speed tier, around 7 minutes on the proposed nbn Home Fast 500/50 Mbps speed tier, and around 5 minutes on the proposed nbn Home Ultrafast 750-1000/50-100 Mbps speed tier.1
nbn is proposing to introduce the accelerated speeds within the next 12 months and today issued an industry consultation paper and, in addition to canvassing a number of implementation considerations, it is seeking retailer input on the potential to introduce the changes even sooner.
In total, approximately 9 million homes and businesses would have access to the upgraded speed tiers by December 2024, growing to up to 10.2 million eligible premises, or approximately 90 per cent of nbn’s fixed line network, by December 2025.
NBN Co today issued a consultation paper to internet retailers, seeking their feedback on the proposed increases in wholesale download and upload speeds by 5pm on Friday 19 April 2024.
Critical to the success of the proposal will be internet retailers’ ability to transmit the higher wholesale speeds across their retail networks and ensure in-home equipment, such as modems and Wi-Fi routers, are capable of delivering the full benefits to customers. NBN Co will be seeking retailer feedback on what in-home equipment will be needed to bring the increased speeds to market.
Anna Perrin, Chief Customer Officer at NBN Co, said:
“Ten years ago, the average Australian home had seven internet-connected devices and consumed around 40 gigabytes per month. Today, some people would use that much data in a day.
“The average household now consumes 443 gigabytes per month across 22 internet-connected devices. We predict that average will grow to 33 connected devices by 2026 and 40 by the end of the decade.
“Yet despite this explosion in data usage, many customers have remained on the same broadband plan for years. Our network monitoring suggests that some customers are potentially hitting their maximum speed on a regular basis. These customers may enjoy a better internet experience on a faster speed tier.
“The good news for customers is we are upgrading the nbn network to keep pace with customer demand. Fibre is the great enabler to deliver near gigabit speeds across the nbn network.
“We are on track with our national fibre upgrade program to put these incredibly fast speeds within reach of more than 10 million Australian homes and businesses by the end of next year.
“And, most importantly, we are proposing to deliver these accelerated speeds at no extra wholesale cost to internet retailers. By working together with the industry, we hope to deliver these accelerated services to customers later this year or early next year.”
Average household data consumption over the nbn network in Australia
About the Author
Andrew Bistak When he's not trying to save the world, Andrew enjoys travel (although loathes turbulence), going to the movies, reading and being a dad to his two dogs (and now twins) with his wife.
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