One and a half million Australian households will be connected with full-fibre access by 2025 thanks to a $2.4 billion equity investment over four years in the 2022-23 Federal Budget.
The Albanese government claims this will deliver a faster and more reliable NBN to more families, communities, and businesses and allow more Australians to take advantage of an increasingly digital global economy.
The new plan will replace the old and slower copper connections with full-fibre connections to 1.5 million premises if they want a faster NBN service.
Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese says, “This is the NBN Australians voted for and it is the NBN my Government is delivering.
“Australians deserve the same access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet access regardless of whether they’re logging in from the bush or the ‘burbs.”
This investment will benefit over 660,000 premises in regional Australia, and mean around 10 million homes and businesses across Australia will have access to speeds of up to one gigabit per second by late 2025.
“I want to bring Australians together and we’re doing that by better connecting neighbourhoods and communities,”
added PM Albanese
An economic analysis commissioned by NBN Co estimates the additional Fibre to the Premises connections will deliver an additional $20 billion uplift in GDP by 2030 through connecting communities and businesses to faster and more reliable broadband services.
Minister Communications, Michelle Rowland points out the post-pandemic reality of working from home for a large number of Australians.
“So much of what we do at home depends on reliable, high-speed internet – things like study, entertainment, working from home or running a small family business.”
The Albanese Government will deliver a better NBN which will improve speeds and reliability, including for regional communities, and enhance equity of access to quality broadband infrastructure.
“Our commitment will help to ensure no one is left behind, including in regional, rural and remote communities, and many vulnerable Australians,”
added Minister Rowland.
The construction and installation phase of the expanded fibre roll-outs will support an additional $2.6 billion in economic activity through 2026.
In addition to powering the digital economy, this project is projected to create jobs for construction workers, engineers and project managers in regions and in suburbs.
