While it will invest in rolling fibre out in Fibre to the Node areas covering some two million households over the next few years, NBN Co is predicting a much smaller uptake of faster, fibre broadband services.
In fact, NBN Co’s new corporate plan – released yesterday alongside Minister Fletcher’s speech to the NPC – reveals its prediction that just 400,000 properties will take up the free fibre upgrade by mid 2024.
Further in the detail gives us a timeframe for when the fibre upgrades will be available; NBN Co forecasts that 2022-23 will see some 200,000 properties upgrade to full fibre connections, with a further 200,000 to join them the following financial year. This means customers will be waiting a little while before those fibre connections will be available.
IT News questioned NBN Co on the figures yesterday, and confirmed our suspicions – fibre upgrades won’t be available until June 2021 at the earliest, and most likely closer to the end of the year.
If you want fibre faster than that, you’ll be paying for it yourself. Otherwise, let’s just hope your existing connection is good enough for your current needs and for the next 18 months or so.
