Victoria and New South Wales are in the box seat for major internet upgrades, with NBN Co recently confirming that more than two million premises are eligible for a fibre upgrade.
Much of Australia’s existing infrastructure still relies on copper technology, which is slower and more prone to degradation over time than fibre optic cable. As part of NBN Co’s ongoing fibre rollout, both Victoria and New South Wales have more than a million eligible residential and business locations eligible for upgrades.
Metropolitan and regional areas are included across the states, with Melbourne and Sydney the major beneficiaries. You can check online to see which Victorian locations and areas in New South Wales are included.
If your existing connection uses fibre to the node (FTTN) or fibre to the curb (FTTC), eligible premises can order a fibre to the premises (FTTP) upgrade. NBN Co’s website has an eligibility tracker where you can check if you’re in luck.
Aside from a more reliable connection, FTTP technology enables high-speed NBN 250 and NBN 1000 plans, the latter of which has improved substantially in recent months. Australians are using more internet than ever, driving an increased demand for faster plans.
How much does it cost to upgrade to fibre NBN?
To upgrade your NBN to a fibre connection, you need to contact your internet service provider (ISP). A full list of participating providers is on the NBN Co website. In many cases, the actual technology upgrade is free, as long as you pick an eligible high-speed plan, usually an NBN 100 plan or faster.
Here are some of the cheapest NBN plans starting at 100Mbps download speeds:
Fortunately, faster internet is cheaper than ever before due to recent wholesale price changes. It means that many of the high-speed NBN tiers required for a free fibre upgrade cost up to $40 less per month, as is the case following TPG and iiNet’s recent price changes.
Not everyone is eligible for a free upgrade, however. If this is the case, you can still request FTTP, although the costs vary greatly depending on various factors. With this in mind, you can get more details about the costs involved via NBN Co directly.
With greater fibre availability, NBN Co’s long-term goal is to get up to 10.2 million premises across to the fastest plans by the end of 2025. By that time, some plans could likely become five times faster.
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