Two-thirds of regional Australians can access nbn

The nbn’s fixed wireless network was augmented with an additional 31 towers last month, with a further 14 expected to go live in July.

The network now spans around 1700 fixed wireless towers mainly in regional and rural areas. The fixed wireless component of the nbn is set to serve up to 6% of Australian households nationwide.

“Fixed wireless delivers superfast broadband through 1700 fixed wireless towers around the nation. Some 500,000 Australians can now access fixed wireless services and the current maximum speeds of 50 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload will double to 100 Mpbs download and 40 Mbps upload early next year,” Minister for Regional Communications Fiona Nash said.

“Fixed wireless has one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings on the nbn. The fixed wireless rollout is flying along and expected to be mostly finished in 2018.”

Nash said that, due to the rapid rollout, two-thirds of premises outside major urban areas were able to order nbn services as of last week.

Meanwhile, in the wake of nbn co’s announcement that it will increase the average bandwidth allocation of an individual Sky Muster satellite service by up to 50%, Nash said she has been meeting with retail Sky Muster broadband providers who have agreed to pass on the additional bandwidth to customers at little extra cost.

“It was great to hear retailers will pass on the extra data to customers, and to hear general agreement that the cost of passing on this extra data to customers will be very low. Although nbn [co] will provide the extra data without cost to retailers, retailers will incur costs of a few dollars to deliver this extra data and so plans will reflect that,” she said.

“The result is customers will soon be able to access 60 GB/month peak data at very little extra cost above what a 40 GB/month plan costs now... This is fantastic news for the 76,000 Sky Muster users and those considering getting a service.”

Image courtesy nbn co.

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