Tassie dudded on data

NBN plans for upgrades even before rollout complete

HOBART will be the first fully NBN-connected capital city and Tasmania is the most connected state, says NBN.

Construction is complete in Hobart and in progress on the North West Coast, with most homes and businesses expected to be able to connect to the NBN through a retail service provider by early next year, the network builder has said.

However, the company acknowledged planning had started on upgrades even before the final rollout would be complete.

NBN Co chief network engineer Peter Ryan said the company had started planning upgrades after its 2020 completion, aware it would not meet future demands.

It is estimated 25-40 per cent of NBN connections by 2020 will be fibre-to-the-node technology — which has been plagued by dropouts and poor speeds.

Experts say this technology will be outdated five to 10 years after the initial rollout.

NBN Co says the rollout is more than 93 per cent complete in Tasmania. A further 32,715 homes and businesses will be connected in the final stage of the rollout.

Tasmanian homes connected to the NBN are download- ing on average about 144GB of data a month, around 20 per cent more than the national fixed-line broadband average and the equivalent of watching 144 one-hour shows on Netflix.

“Tasmania is at the forefront of the first nationwide upgrade of its kind to Australia’s telecommunications in more than 100 years,” NBN state corporate affairs manager for Tasmania Russell Kelly said.

“With the rollout over 93 per cent complete in Tasmania, it is important for residents who haven’t yet made the switch to speak with their preferred retail service provider and discuss a speed and data plan that suits their needs.”

However, Mr Ryan said the network would need to be future-proofed.

“I do accept that there has been some problems more recently,” he said.

“It is something that we are very focused on and we will focus a lot of our marketing on in the coming future.”

His comments come as the NBN today has reached half of all Australians, ahead of schedule and budget.

A CHOICE survey last week showed 62 per cent of Australians suffered broadband disconnections, dropouts and speed slowdowns over the past six months.