NBN Co still has 1Gbps on way

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blog It’s now been three and a half years since then-Communications Minister Stephen Conroy promised Australians that NBN Co would eventually deliver 1Gbps broadband speeds through the Labor’s all-singing, all-dancing, all-fibre National Broadband Network, and eight months since NBN Co promised it would be here by the end of 2013. Well, the rollout of the NBN may have made very little progress in that time, but the 1Gbps speeds are still coming. At least, that’s what NBN Co is promising. We’re not quite sure how much weight to give such promises at this stage. The Sydney Morning Herald tells us (we recommend you click here for the full article):

“An NBN Co spokesman confirmed on Friday the service “will be made available to retail service providers by the end of the year”, but that it was up to retail service providers to decide whether they would sell it to customers.”

It’ll be interesting to see if anyone actually bothers to launch these speeds in the retail environment. Let’s hope so. Otherwise, how would we be able to test the claim by current Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull that a 1Gbps retail service would cost as much as $20,000 per month? And that claim does need to be tested. Then we can write another article about how Turnbull has refused to retract yet another sensational statement he’s made that turned out to be completely wrong. Do I sound bitter? Well, it has been a long year.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Pretty sure you mean “all-singing, all-dancing, 90% fibre” .. the LTE and satellite connections are still part of the NBN!

    Here’s hoping more than 20% of NBN subscribers are connected to a service by 2020 that is capable of offering over 100mbit.

    • 93%. Because that next 3% (taking fibre to 96%) would have doubled the cost of the project.

  2. I have to admit, I’m surprised that Turnbull is going to allow NBNCo to offer a product that will (a) run rings around the best that FttN is likely to offer here, and (b) almost certainly never be available to FttN customers if they live more than a couple of houses from the node.
    Unless they’re willing to pony up the couple of grand to get FttP installed, which the labor plan would have given them for the same upfront cost as FttN (I.e. nothing).

    • It depends on what the ongoing costs for the fibre on demand are. If the householder is paying upfront cost for the installation of the fibre then the monthly cost should come down to something equivalent to ULL. Considering that AVC is $150/month for 1Gbps paying the upfront cost would work out cheaper within two years.

      Labor’s plan was for steeply discounted initial pricing reliant on steeply rising demand to deliver the ROI.

      • Completely missing an important aspect, ubiquitousness.
        A large proportion will not recognise the long term need in the short term, so will not opt for the fibre extension of the FTTN network (It is not a full GPON option as from active port on a FTTN Node), as such unless GPON Passive nodes are also installed in the cabinet, it will be forever limited).

        This will mean massive one off install inefficiencies and higher costs, look up current costs for a fibre install.

        It will be a ridiculous diversion of resources during install for just one or two customers without the cost reduction of a bulk rollout. So rather expensive, especially for mid to lower income sector, and renters who make up a major population sector will be entirely locked out.
        Graduates and undergraduates and researchers do not have high incomes even though they may have a need for their work.

        The NBN is for the Nation for the future and is meant to provide the opportunity to maximise our human resources over the decades to come, a cripplrware option that the benefits are for the priveledged is a big fail except for the Hubris ridden ego trippers

    • NBNco already offer connections better than those likely to be available on FTTN, it is called every service NBN offer above 12mb/s. This does include fix wireless services.

    • Lower up-front costs – under FTTN you pay for the equipment FTTP would have provided for free.

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