Barkly Region and Alice Springs are set to receive major upgrades to its Fibre to the Node Network, according to NBN Co
More than 2000 households and businesses in the Barkly Region and Alice Springs are set to benefit from nationwide upgrades to the country’s National Broadband Network, with costs for the project totalling nearly $4bn. Read the details.
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More than 2000 households and businesses in the Barkly Region and Alice Springs are set to benefit from nationwide upgrades to the country’s National Broadband Network, with costs for the project totalling nearly $4bn.
NBN Co announced on Monday upgrades to the remaining Fibre to the Node network, backed by an investment of up to $3bn from the federal government and a further $800m from NBN Co.
Work on the upgrades – which are anticipated to be completed by the end of 2030 – will start immediately and be completed progressively.
The investment is expected to benefit around 622,000 homes and businesses – more than half of which are located in regional areas – across the country, with more than 95 per cent of premises having the option to upgrade to NBN Full Fibre via NBN Fibre to the Premises.
The remaining five per cent of homes and businesses, which require further design work, may be upgraded to future next-generation technologies.
Previous government investments to upgrade NBN include a $2.4bn investment commitment to enable an additional 1.5 million homes and businesses to upgrade from Fibre to the Node to Fibre to the Premises, and $480 million to upgrade the NBN Fixed Wireless and Sky Muster satellite networks.
NBN Co said full fibre, which uses fibre optic cables, was faster and more reliable than Fibre to the Node, which uses ageing copper to deliver broadband services.
NBN Co chief executive Ellie Sweeney said the investment was critical to Australians.
“Fast and reliable broadband boosts industry, creates jobs, sparks innovation and strengthens social and economic participation,” she said.
“It carries more than 80 per cent of the nation’s data and is used by more than 20 million people each day.”
Ms Sweeney said the upgrades would have a “significant” impact on the economy.
“Independent economic modelling by Accenture estimates the economic benefit of upgrading the remaining Fibre to the Node footprint could increase GDP by $10.4 billion, support 10,000 jobs, and create 4,000 businesses over the next decade,” she said.
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Originally published as Barkly Region and Alice Springs are set to receive major upgrades to its Fibre to the Node Network, according to NBN Co
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