National Broadband Network (NBN)

Australia's National Broadband Network, affectionately known as "The NBN", continues to be talked about across much of the media and the on-line landscape. With the recent elections held in Australia in September 2013 and the subsequent change in government, many facets of the NBN roll out are now under review.

Where did it all begin?

• In April 2009, the then Australian Labor Government established the National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) to build and operate new infrastructure, known as the National Broadband Network (NBN.)
• The NBN has been setup to be Australia’s first national wholesale-only, open access, high speed broadband platform.
• Access to the NBN is to be via Access Seekers (a Carrier or Carriage Service Provider as defined in the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth))) who will purchase network usage at a wholesale rate from NBN Co and then resell to the consumer market.
• The NBN is to enable advanced super fast digital services to the nation. It is to connect 93% of all Australian homes, schools and workplaces with broadband services with peak speeds of up to 1GB/sec by replacing the existing Telstra copper network with Optical Fibre.
• The remaining 7% of premises to be connected by either wireless or satellite. 
• It is proposed to be rolled out over a period of eight years. Rollout began in Tasmania and, in 2010, a pilot rollout throughout mainland Australia commenced. 
• Total build cost is estimated to be $38 billion with approx $20B government investment envisaged.
• During construction it is estimated NBN Co will directly support up to 25,000 local jobs every year over the 8 year life of the project
• The Australian Government at the time of NBN Co inception, had indicated that NBN Co will eventually be privatised

Network Architecture (Source:http://www.commsalliance.com.au)

The NBN is to advance Australia as a Digital Economy with the following goals;

• Australia ranks in the top five OECD countries in the portion of households that connect to broadband at home.

• Australia ranks in the top five OECD countries in relation to the percentage of businesses, and not for profit organisations, using online opportunities to drive productivity improvements, expand their customer base and enable jobs growth.

• The majority of Australian households, businesses and other organisations will have access to smart technology to better manage their energy use.

• Access to health records - e-health

• Australian schools, TAFEs, universities and higher education institutions will have the connectivity to develop and collaborate on innovative and flexible educational services and resources to extend online learning resources to the home and workplace; and the facilities to offer students and learners, who cannot access courses via traditional means, the opportunity for online virtual learning.

• Australia will have at least doubled its level of teleworking so that at least 12 per cent of Australian employees report having a teleworking arrangement with their employer

• Four out of five Australians will choose to engage with the Australian Government through the internet or other type of online service.

• The gap between households and businesses in capital cities and those in regional areas will have narrowed significantly.

Source 'www.nbn.gov.au'

Where are we today?

Simply put, and there is much written about elsewhere, please consult the government website for Communications for the latest.  Even the NBN Co website currently has the following on their web page:

OK, enough of the heavy stuff, how fast was/will the NBN be.  Check out this site which simulates speeds (of what could have been and most likely will be).

For more information or if you want to jump to where the NBN services are available or the where the build has commenced, check out NBN Co website, or see the video below for an introduction on 'Getting Connected' to the NBN.

Finally, if you are in Australia and want to find out if the NBN is being rolled out in your area, click on the NBN rollout map below.