Australia’s National Broadband Network: Bridging the High-Speed Gap

The National Broadband Network is one of the most compelling national initiatives in recent years, with plans calling for high speed Internet connections to be introduced nationwide. Initially enacted in 2009, the NBN is still in the rollout phase, but by completion is planned to deliver ultra-fast connections to 93 percent of households while the remaining residents receive broadband access for the first time.

The NBN it was created in response to Australia’s lagging internet speeds, and is designed to bring the country’s Internet speeds up to par with the international community

The Issues

With a typical Internet speed of just 6.9Mbps as recently as late 2014, Australia had begun to lag behind in the international broadband race. In fact, the country’s global ranking slipped to 44^th worldwide, trailing countries such as Latvia and New Zealand along with the global leaders, South Korea, who posted an impressive average of over 25Mbps to equal some of the fastest speeds commonly available in Australia.

The core issues for this delay in development include slow consumer adoption of broadband as well as limited technologies such as copper wire-based networks, which inherently limit possible bandwidth as well as allowing degradation of signal over longer distances.

The Solutions

One remedy to subpar national Internet speeds is to move to afibre-to-the-node network, which allows for faster overall speeds without degradation of signal due to its direct connection between source and the general area of its destination. FttN connections can deliver practical average speeds around 25Mbps, and the infrastructure is currently being installed in high population residential areas.

An even more advanced version of a fibre-based network that builds on FttN infrastructure is known asFibre-to-the-Premises, or FttP. FttPcreates a direct connection between the larger source network and the individual home. This enables FttP to offer a potential download speed of up to 100Mbps where feasible, but this technology has yet to be implemented on a widespread basis.

While broadband options such as ADSL2 and 4G have become the high-speed standard in the country, the unfortunate fact is that Australia is significantly behind many of its neighbors when it comes to Internet speed at the consumer level. The NBN is a bold attempt to address this issue, providing faster Internet speeds over a wider network at a lower price in an effort to move toward a universally high-speed Australia. Visit iiNet to compare NBN plans and become part of the country’s connected future.