TPG outpaces NBN with G.Fast network rollout

Customers will be able to download TV shows such as Succession and Yellowstone in seconds thanks to an ultra-fast broadband upgrade.

TPG will be the first telco to offer G.Fast technology.

TPG will be Australia’s first major telco to launch G.Fast technology, offering speeds of up to 10 times that currently offered by NBN in more than 2000 buildings – more than 230,000 premises overall – across the nation.

The telco this week is launching G.Fast in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and the ACT across its wholesale network to buildings using fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) technology. The buildings are typically townhouses and apartment blocks.

TPG’s executive in charge of wholesale, enterprise and government, Jonathan Rutherford, said G.Fast enabled speeds of up to 1 Gbps – about 10 times that typically offered by NBN in its FTTB network – with unlimited data and no complicated AVC or CVC charges.

A Blu-ray movie can be downloaded in about two minutes with 1 Gbps, while a high-definition TV episode could be downloaded in eight seconds.

TPG executive Jonathan Rutherford. Source: Supplied

“The great thing about G.Fast is it really gets the most out of the network that we’ve already got in place in these buildings,” Mr Rutherford said.

“All these buildings are already connected via our fibre, and then inside the buildings we put in the G.Fast equipment, which can then get you speeds that are 10 times faster than what you had before. For gamers, having a fast download is critical, and more and more users are demanding these faster speeds.

“It’s probably our best kept secret that we have a ­really strong wholesale division. It’s something that we think is a great opportunity for us as a company to make better use of the ­assets we’ve got and have invested in, and a great opportunity to give customers more choices.”

NBN had plans to roll out G.Fast to premises using Fibre-to-the-Curb technology in 2018 but reversed that move, instead opting for full-fibre upgrades.

Mr Rutherford said TPG would continue to invest in G.Fast and had plans to upgrade its footprint in South Australia and Western Australia, which would take the telco to more than 2500 G.Fast-capable buildings over the next year.

TPG is offering a 15 per cent discount on the wholesale costs of its G.Fast plans to wholesalers that sign up in the first 12 months, which Mr Rutherford said would make those plans more affordable than comparable NBN plans.

“With 5G, NBN services and our affordable super-fast broadband products, if you look at us as a wholesale business we now have a range of technology options to help customers connect and get them the best services they’re looking for,” he said. “We’ll continue to invest and offer more choices to more customers across a whole range of technologies.”

NBN chief executive Stephen Rue told Senate Estimates last year that NBN Co abandoned its G.Fast rollout given it decided to opt for full-fibre upgrades for customers instead.

The government-owned entity is currently subject to a media blackout due to the caretaker ­period.

“If we’re going to provide higher speeds beyond 100Mbps to people, we wanted to look at the long term, the 15-year road map if you like,” Mr Rue told Senate ­Estimates.

“We took the view that if we’re using G.Fast, there would still be things like copper remediation, there may be still some home wiring in the home, and it was also going to be IT system builds for us and the retailers, and a harder thing for retailers to manage because they’d have to explain what service they were getting.

“So we concluded that the best return on investment for those customers who wanted more than a 100Mbps was to provide a fibre lead-in.”