NBN Co to offer high speed internet to more regions

NBN Co will increase the regions eligible for its fast business fibre zones, adding 44 new zones capable of speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second.

NBN Co said the expanded zone service would take in 284 metropolitan and regional areas, and reach more than 850,000 business locations nationally.

NBN Co will increase the regions eligible for its fast business fibre zones, adding 44 new zones capable of speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second.

The expansion, which takes in suburban and regional areas in every state, will also give 60,000 additional businesses access to cloud computing and storage facilities at CBD-equivalent prices. Businesses that sign up for three years will receive free design and construction. NBN Co will not charge the retailer an upfront connection cost.

NBN Co said the expanded zone service would take in 284 metropolitan and regional areas, and reach more than 850,000 business locations nationally. The new zones come online from September 1.

It’s now almost a year since NBN Co created the first 240 NBN business fibre zones in September 2020.

Chief customer officer at NBN Co, Brad Whitcomb, said NBN was out to lift the digital capacity of Australia.

“Businesses are increasingly using business NBN Enterprise Ethernet to support cloud-based business operations, remote file storage, content hosting, unified communications, large file distribution, and to connect head office locations,” Mr Whitcomb said.

“However, for decades the location of a business – whether it’s in the city or outer metropolitan area, peri-urban fringe, regional city, town or rural area – has been the determining factor in the price they pay for business-grade fibre.”

He said more businesses throughout Australia will participate in the digital economy on an equal footing, with greater parity on recurring monthly wholesale charges.

NBN Co chief customer officer Brad Whitcomb.

Businesses within any of NBN Business Fibre Zones with an enterprise ethernet service will receive their chosen speed tier and service at a CBD-equivalent wholesale charge.

Communication minister Paul Fletcher said the new zones would bring the number of business fibre zones to 284.

“As we manage and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, investment in local business communications infrastructure will help businesses to recover quickly, while taking advantage of domestic and international markets,” Mr Fletcher said.

The federal government last year announced $700m to address the accessibility and affordability of business-grade fibre and allow small to medium businesses to embrace opportunities for growth.

The government said research by Frontier Economics had found that NBN Co’s business fibre investments would contribute up to $7.2bn annually to the economy by 2024. It said the research forecasted productivity benefits for businesses of up to 12 per cent, with regional areas to benefit.

NBN Co said plans for the new zones would remain flexible for small, medium and large businesses, with options for prioritised data, high capacity symmetrical wholesale download, and upload speed tiers from 10 Mbps to close to 1 Gbps service enhancements available to add on to plans.

NSW

There will be ten new business fibre zones in NSW, on the tip of Sydney’s northern beaches peninsula from Avalon to Palm Beach, Camden, Casino, Cessnock, Hunters Hill, Lithgow, Nelson Bay, Singleton, Wauchope and a Lake Macquarie – West zone incorporating parts of Morisset, Toronto, West Wallsend and Edgeworth.

Victoria

Victoria gets 13 new zones: Balwyn-Surrey Hills, Bentleigh, Cowes, Eltham, Glenroy, Hampton-Sandringham, Hastings-Tyabb, Melton, Ocean Grove, Rosebud, Tatura, Torquay, and Yarrawonga.

Queensland

The nine new Queensland zones are Ayr, Dalby, Emerald, Goondiwindi, Hervey Bay, Nambour, North Lakes, Warwick and Yeppoon.

Western Australia

The four new WA zones are Cottesloe, Joondalup, Maddington and Collie.

South Australia

South Australia gets new zones at Goolwa, Modbury, Naracoorte, Port Pirie and Stirling.

ACT

The new ACT zones cover Gungahlin and Tuggeranong.

Tasmania

There is one new zone in Tasmania covering George Town and Bell Bay.

There are no new zones in the Northern Territory.

NBN Co said businesses located in the existing 240 zones might also benefit from wholesale pricing discounts of up to 37 per cent, where zone and bandwidth discounts are combined. NBN Co would offer wholesale discounts of up to 58 per cent, where the zone and bandwidth discounts are combined, for businesses outside an existing zone.