National Broadband Network delivering superfast internet to Australian homes & businesses

Kevin Rudd and the Australian Government have announced it will establish a company that will invest up to $43 billion over 8 years to build and operate Australia’s National Broadband Network, which will deliver super-fast internet access to Australians.

This announcement is arguably the most significant infrastructure decision made by the Australian government today.

What is the new National Broadband Network?

The National Broadband Network will provide new infrastructure to

• Provide an internet connection that can reach speeds of up to 100 megabits per second to 90% of all Australian homes, schools and businesses. This is an incredbily significant boost to internet connection speeds, with connections on the National Broadband Network being approx. 100 times faster than current internet connections used in homes and workplaces.
• The remaining 10% of homes and businesses will be connected to the National Broadband Network via wireless and satellite technologies, delivering connection speeds up to 12 megabits per second.

The end result is essentially that every Australian will have access to a reliable, fast and affordable broadband internet connection.

How is the National Broadband Network so much faster?

The National Broadband Network will connect homes, schools and businesses with optical Fibre to the Premises (FttP). The National Broadband Network will also provide fibre optic links between major cities and towns, and extending access in to rural areas.

What benefits will my internet connection on the National Broadband Network provide me?

There are a number of key benefits of a super-fast broadband connection on the National Broadband Network. The benefits have been broken down below separately for homes and businesses

Benefits of the National Broadband Network for Homes and Consumers

• Faster on-demand entertainment. Services like TiVO for downloading TV shows rely heavily on your internet connection for downloading large files. Faster internet will mean you’ll be able to watch your favourite TV show or movie sooner!
• More Video and other on-demand services. The new National Broadband Network will provide new infrastructure for new video on-demand services and new ideas for on-demand services available to consumers at home.
• Improved productivity saving you time when doing every-day tasks. Less waiting for things like downloading your favourite music, uploading your photos to Facebook, or watching a video on YouTube will give you more time to get things done, and allow you to do more things in your day!
• Up to 37,000 More jobs for Australians. The National Broadband Network project will provide approximately 25,000 local jobs over the life of the 8 year project, with up to 37,000 jobs at the peak of the project.

Benefits of the National Broadband Network for Businesses and Workplaces

• Faster internet browsing. With a faster connection, the bottle-neck will be shifted from the internet connection to the computer and it’s ability to render a webpage quickly. Faster browsing will result in an improved productivity, particularly with larger organisations who have a large number of people using the same internet connection.
• 100% feasibility to switch from copper-line phone services to VoIP. VoIP for business in the current market situation can be risky on a flaky internet connection resulting in poor voice quality. The new NBN will provide a superfast and stable internet connection for businesses to utilise and run their voice communications on.
• Improved Quality of Service for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. Those businesses who have been running SaaS applications – ie. software delivered over an internet connection, will experience significant quality improvements on a faster internet connection. Reduced internet connection latency will exponentially improve productivity.
• Fast off-site backup solutions. With a faster broadband connection off-site backup will become more feasible. Currently, businesses who have a large amount of data on their network would struggle with their ADSL connection when syncing with their off-site backups. A faster internet connection will allow businesses to have more regular backups, and more of them, as backups will be quicker to perform. The other benefit is the speed at which a business will be able to download and restore using a backup hosted in an off-site location.

How much will my internet cost on the National Broadband Network?

There is still specultation as to how much the actual cost for an internet connection on the National Broadband Network will cost, but estimates are currently at $150-200 per month. For many Australians, the speed & reliability benefits will far out weight the additional investment to be able to access the National Broadband Network.

When will I have access to an internet connection on the new National Broadband Network?

The National Broadband Network project is expected to take 8 years to complete. It is a bit of a wait, but it will be well worth it! (Lets hope the project sticks to the scheduled timeframe!)

Where can I find out more about the National Broadband Network?

Users on Twitter have begun using the hashtag #nbn to tag their tweets relating to the National Broadband Network. Follow the following users on Twitter:

• wirelessnetau – our Twitter profile will featured a lot of national broadband network news, so make sure you follow!
• australianfibre

The following Australian news websites have full coverage on the National Broadband network:

• WotNews
• Australian IT News
• Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy

Other reactions to Kevin Rudd’s National Broadband Network announcement:

• National Broadband Network Australia Thoughts [Future Medium]
• Aussies announce $31B National Broadband Network [Wired]
• Analysis of the National Broadband Network announcement [BuddeBlog]
• Reactions to Rudd’s National Broadband Network Plan [PollieGraph]
• The National Brodband Network [Stilgherrian]

People who viewed this Page also viewed these Pages

National Broadband Network news update (24/04/09)

Latest news on the Australian National Broadband Network The National Broadband Network announcement was made on

World’s Fastest Broadband at $20 per home

Everyone loves really fast broadband - don't you? NYT reports that the "fastest consumer broadband

Reactions to the National Broadband Network

What does the average everyday Australian think of the new $43 billion National Broadband Network?

National Broadband Network explained

I have just finished listening to the latest podcast from BNET on the National Broadband

Vodafone to expand 3G mobile broadband network coverage in regional NSW

By early next month, many rural towns in regional areas of NSW will soon have

2 Responses

1. World’s Fastest Broadband at $20 per home | Wireless Internet Access Australia Says:
   April 13th, 2009 at 7:29 pm

   [...] Australian government’s National Broadband Network announcement will see Australia’s benefiting from 100mbps connections to their home. This infrastructure [...]

2. National Broadband Network update (24/04/09) | Wireless Internet Access Australia Says:
   April 25th, 2009 at 12:07 am

   [...] National Broadband Network announcement was made on the 7th April 2009. This project is the largest infrastructure investment ever made by [...]

Add a Comment

Name

Mail (will not be published)

Website

Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment.
There is no need to resubmit your comment.

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail