NBN key to work from home during pandemic as 1gbps plans announced

Restrictions have begun being eased around Australia as cases fall, but there’s one part of our pandemic reality people aren’t keen to see go.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced rapid changes in the way we do things and while many of these changes have been disruptive and damaging, there’s one change people would be happy to see stick around.

The lucky group of Australians who have not only kept their jobs during the pandemic, but who have been able to do them from home, have overwhelmingly reported enjoying it more and hoping to continue it in the future.

The study was conducted on behalf of the company building the national broadband network, who earlier in the pandemic had to scramble to shore up the capabilities of the network as millions of people suddenly transitioned to working from home, leading to a surge in traffic on the NBN.

Network traffic has increased by as much as 70 per cent during business hours since March 1.

RELATED: NBN demand surges during pandemic

An NBN worker installing fibre cables in a street side pit.

Much of this traffic was also the higher bandwidth transmission of video through conferencing apps like Zoom and WebEx, as well as an increase in streaming video as people were forced to stay at home.

NBN Co and the telcos it sells network access to met and agreed to increase the capacity (also known as CVC) on the network by 40 per cent until the end of July, which the Labor Party now wants to see made permanent.

“The question from here is how do we transition CVC pricing to a new normal in a fair and economically responsible way?” Shadow communications minister Michelle Rowland said.

“Hastily undoing the capacity boost would be problematic given this could force up prices or lead to congestion … [We] would prefer to see a considered transition of NBN capacity pricing in consultation with retail providers, informed by traffic trends as COVID-19 restrictions wind down,” she added.

Communications minister Paul Fletcher said the NBN had played a “critical” role in meeting the “immense challenges presented by COVID-19”.

“Thanks to the NBN, Australians have been able to keep working productively from home and stay connected with their colleagues, clients and stakeholders,” he said.

1006 respondents took part in the survey, conducted by Venture Insights.

More than three quarters lived in metro areas with the rest coming from the regional areas the network was primarily envisioned to benefit.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitisation of our lives and highlighted the very reason the national broadband network was built,” NBN Co chief customer officer Brad Whitcomb said.

“The way Australians use the internet to work, learn new skills and connect with their family, friends and colleagues has been transformed, and we expect that many of these new behaviours are here to stay,” he added.

Four out of five respondents said working from home had changed their thinking about the balance between their work life and their real life, with two-thirds saying they would seek to continue working from home more even once the pandemic is under control.

Christopher Ong is one Aussie who’s enjoyed working from home and spending more time with his family, even if daughter Ava gatecrashes the odd Zoom meeting. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Those respondents skewed towards metro areas, where 69 per cent expected to work from home more, compared to 54 per cent in the regions.

83 per cent agreed they wouldn’t have been able to work from home without fast internet access.

“As working habits have changed over the past several weeks, many preconceptions about the viability of long-term remote working seem to have shifted,” said Venture Insights managing director Nigel Pugh.

“We’ve seen in the research that, for many Australians, this change in routine has given them the freedom to embrace greater work/life flexibility.

“In light of this, it’s not surprising that two-thirds of respondents who worked from home are interested in maintaining their new ways of working even after restrictions are lifted,” Mr Pugh said.

The national broadband network is due to “complete” its rollout next month, but that doesn’t mean the job is done.

A focus for NBN Co is to start making money so Australian taxpayers can get a return on investment for the massive infrastructure project, which seemingly got more and more expensive any time someone mentioned it.

There’s also a need to continue working on the network in the coming years as new technology comes along.

Things like integrated chips that could greatly increase the speed and capacity of the fibre network after the fact could deliver better performance in the future.

Low-orbit satellites being proposed by companies led by the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk could also bring better internet to rural and regional areas currently served by the NBN’s own satellite service.

In the near term, the network is also getting faster, for the lucky group of Australians on the best version of the network.

It might look small but this tiny chip could be the key to powering a faster NBN in the future.

Factory workers pose with spools of fibre optic cable at a manufacturing facility in Sydney’s north. Picture: AAP / Monique Harmer

Customers who have access to FTTP connection (fibre-to-the-premises) will soon be able to access speeds up to 1gbps.

That’s roughly 20 times faster than the most popular 50mbps bundle, though the actual speeds delivered by NBN bundles are usually a little lower than that number, in some cases by an unacceptably long way.

FTTP connections bring the fibre optic cables that power the network right into your home, whereas other fixed-line connections take it to the kerb, or basement in apartment buildings.

More Australians are on fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) connections, where the fibre network ends at a “node” or telephone exchange and transitions to the existing copper network.

Replacing the copper network with fibre in the future could also be a long-term NBN goal.

FTTN connections account for 95 per cent of the “underperforming” NBN connections.

An example of an NBN “node”.

Telstra won’t even sell you its fastest 100mbps NBN plan if you’re on FTTN because the network can’t handle it.

Retail service provider Aussie Broadband has already announced its plans to offer customers up to 1gbps download speeds with up to 50mbps upload speeds.

One would be within their rights to question exactly why you’d want or need those speeds in a typical home, but if you do be prepared to spend big for it.

Aussie Broadband’s 1000/50 bundle is $149 a month, with the company’s managing director Phillip Britt suggesting it would be best for big families.

“There’s many advantages to having ultra-fast internet, including increased reliability and lower latency, but one of the main benefits is that it supports multiple users on multiple devices — all at once,” Mr Britt said, but he warned the actual speeds could be lower.

“This is a best effort service and peak evening speeds will vary based on network demand at the time,” he said.

“We think that the plan should achieve off-peak speeds of up to 80-90%, depending on the technology type.”

Aussie Broadband customers already on the company’s 250/25 plan will be migrated to the new plan, which is faster and cheaper.

The company plans to have the new speed tier available from Friday.