Faster internet speeds, more competition: NBN defends $640m fibre upgrade

Vodafone’s owner has slammed NBN Co’s ‘overbuilding’ as wasteful, while the taxpayer-backed telco is defending its costly upgrades as vital for future-proof speeds. It’s a fight for your internet dollar.

NBN Co, helmed by Ellie Sweeney, says it is future-proofing internet speeds in Australia’s capital. Picture: Yianni Aspradakis

Government-owned NBN Co has hit back at accusations it is “overbuilding its network” in one of Australia’s most expensive areas to roll out fibre cable, Canberra, saying it is “supporting competition” and delivering faster internet speeds.

Vodafone owner TPG Telecom slammed the telco – which has $26bn in debt – for wasting more than $640m of taxpayers’ money by steaming ahead with costly upgrades in the nation’s capital.

TPG argued such works were unnecessary given its wholesaler, Vision Network – which it sold to Macquarie-backed Vocus for $5.25bn, with the deal expected to settle in coming weeks – is already available in Canberra and can provide up to 1Gbps connection speeds.

NBN’s Canberra upgrades are costing almost $6600 per premises, mainly due to challenges such as backyard power poles and rocky terrain. About 97,000 businesses and homes in the ACT are included in the upgrade, lifting its total cost to more than $640m.

But an NBN Co spokeswoman said the upgrades were “critical to meet growing demand for faster speeds and higher data usage” and would be able to access double the speeds Vision offers.

“Average monthly downloads in the ACT is forecast to exceed 1100 gigabytes within the decade,” she said.

“NBN Co is investing in a range of fibre upgrade programs to improve broadband performance for homes and businesses currently served by fibre-to-the-node technology.

“Once upgraded, eligible customers in the ACT and beyond will be able to access NBN’s highest-speed wholesale tiers, including 2Gbps download speeds available from September under our Accelerate Great program.

“NBN Co’s open-access wholesale network was designed to support competition, enable choice, and deliver better connectivity outcomes for customers regardless of where they live.”

TPG has been highly critical of NBN as well as the nation’s biggest telco, Telstra, which it has accused of overstating the size of its network, sparking the competition regulator’s attention.

TPG CEO Inaki Berroeta says Australians have criticised a telco tax that aims to partially offset NBN Co’s losses. Picture: Adam Yip

In regard to the NBN, TPG chief executive Inaki Berroeta said Australians were paying about $8 extra a month – or about 10 per cent of the cost of a 50Mbps broadband plan – to fund the Regional Broadband Scheme that is designed to subside the government-owned telco.

But NBN advocates argue that the RBS is necessary to “partially offset” the telco’s losses from delivering services in high-cost locations and to stop commercial operators from “cherry-picking” profitable metro markets.

The RBS is a levy that is collected from telcos and administered by the government to support connectivity in regional areas.

“As part of our most recent initiative, announced in January 2025, NBN is upgrading around 622,000 FTTN premises by 2030, including approximately 97,000 homes and businesses across the Australian Capital Territory,” the NBN spokeswoman said.

“More than half of the 622,000 premises included in this national upgrade program are located in regional areas.”

Originally published as Faster internet speeds, more competition: NBN defends $640m fibre upgrade