NBN Co announces location of first 6,000 homes to receive Fibre to the Building
NBN Co has moved a step closer to launching our FTTB product with the announcement of the first 6,000 homes to be able to access services.
Since NBN Co adopted the Multi-Technology Mix (MTM) model we have been working hard to develop the necessary new products that will allow people to access high speed broadband faster and more efficiently.
That hard work is bearing fruit.
In the lead-up to making Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) available to telcos and internet service providers in March, we’ve already made a head start on the planning, design and construction of FTTB services in high rises in Melbourne, Sydney and the ACT.
Forty three apartment blocks, containing 6,000 end users, have been earmarked to become the first in Australia to receive FTTB in the first half of this year, we expect around 2,000 of these to be ready for service by end-March.
Not just great speeds…
The benefits don’t just include cracking speeds. Trial users are receiving an average of 89Mbps download and 36Mbps upload via Vectored VDSL.
There is also the fact that installing FTTB in high rise buildings is a smoother process than installing Fibre to the Premises.
It’s no secret that NBN Co has long wrestled with the problem of delivering full Fibre-to-the-Premises services to MDUs – no two MDUs are the same and each requires its own design for delivering FTTP services, a very complex process.
There’s also the added complication that delivering FTTP services to MDUs means deploying the extensive new internal building wiring required – something which can be extremely time-consuming.
FTTB provides a smoother solution
The beauty of FTTB is that we don’t have to deal with either of these problems – we simply install new NBN equipment in the communications room of each building (ordinarily located in the basement) and we are ready to provide access to fast broadband via existing in-building wiring.
Not only does FTTB smooth the process of connecting to the NBN to thousands more Australians, it’s also great news for our customers. Retail Service Providers will be able to sell NBN services to these customers in these MDUs once we launch our commercial FTTB product.
We have been conducting pilot trials of our FTTB services for a while – working alongside our RSP customers - and have been delighted with the results we have achieved with our FTTB trial users reporting very high rates of satisfaction with the service.
This is going to be a key factor in making sure we can get MDU dwellers connected to our network quickly and with minimal disruption – and help us meet our overall goal of getting 8 million happy homes on board the NBN by 2020.