Nearly 4 million Australians still haven’t upgraded to full fibre NBN

Ahead of the NBN speed upgrade in September, nearly four million Australian premises have yet to take up the fibre upgrade required to access faster internet.

According to NBN Co’s latest Annual Service Improvement Plan report, approximately 806,000 premises were upgraded to fibre connections. As of the end of the previous financial year, more than 4.6 million locations were eligible for a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) upgrade.

As part of NBN Co’s “Accelerate Great” project, FTTP connections are scheduled to get faster speeds at no extra cost. Internet plans currently with 100Mbps download speeds will automatically increase to 500Mbps — but only for FTTP and Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) connections.

To encourage Australians to adopt the faster speeds, NBN Co has expanded the number of locations eligible to upgrade to FTTP connections. Millions of Australian premises still use Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) and Fibre to the Node (FTTN) connections, which use a combination of fibre and copper technologies.

Faster internet speeds aren’t the only reason behind the push to FTTP. Independent testing by the ACCC in 2024 found that FTTN resulted in a much higher outage frequency than FTTP. NBN Co also claims that as copper technology ages, it’s more prone to “reduced speed” and “instability” over time.

For most locations eligible for a fibre upgrade, there’s no cost when paired with an NBN 100 plan or a faster tier. NBN Co waives the high-speed requirement for “FTTN locations that have never connected to (the) NBN”, and some FTTC locations.

Why haven’t more Australians upgraded to FTTP?

However, this speed tier requirement may be a barrier to upgrading for many Australians. Based on ACCC’s wholesale NBN market reporting, more than 5 million residential connections are on plans with speeds of 50Mbps or slower.

Looking at the cheapest NBN plans, these lower-speed tiers cost between $60 and $75 per month. Compared to NBN 100 plans, which cost upwards of $80 a month, the cheaper prices are appealing when money is tight.

As if to tackle this issue directly, Exetel, Tangerine, and SpinTel have launched plans with 500Mbps download speeds ahead of the official NBN upgrade in September. At around $80 per month each, they aim to make faster speeds more palatable. Before, similar internet speeds could cost upwards of $100 every month.

NBN Co plans to increase FTTP upgrade eligibility to 3.5 million FTTN and 1.5 million FTTC locations by the end of the year. That leaves a further 622,000 FTTN premises stuck in limbo. Of which, NBN Co expects to offer FTTP upgrades to “more than 95 per cent” of premises by the end of 2030. Anyone remaining after that “may be upgraded to future next-generation technologies.”