First 1000 FTTN NBN premises connected

nbn has announced it has connected the first 1000 fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) premises to the NBN 51 days after commencing this component of the rollout.

The milestone also helped the network reach another milestone of having 1.5 million premises connected to the network.

FTTN is currently being switched on across Bundaberg, the first Queensland city to be included in the FTTN rollout footprint.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said the cost per premise of implementing FTTN is estimated to be $2300, compared to $4400 for FTTP.

He added that around 100 users per day are switching to vectored VDSL broadband connectivity, which uses existing copper wiring but offers a superior performance to ADSL, and said the total VDSL footprint is on track to reach 75,000 by the end of the financial year.

But VDSL only has a maximum capacity of around 100 Mbps, whereas 1 Gbps fibre is becoming increasingly popular overseas, and the 5G mobile standard expected to arrive in 2020 is expected to deliver 1 Gbps peak speeds over the air.

The Coalition's revised NBN rollout plan aims to double the network footprint every year for the next three years.

Image courtesy of Dushan Hanuska under CC