NBN now looks at performance
THE company building the National Broadband Network has hit the halfway mark and says planning is under way for future upgrades to the network.
At the end of June, 5.7 million premises were able to access the network – 300,000 premises ahead of schedule.
Attention is turning to improving the performance of the network, which has been plagued with issues.
It’s expected about 30–40% of the completed rollout will use fibre-to-the-node technology to service end-users, running fibre to boxes on street corners and then relying on existing copper wires to make the final connection to the home.
Detractors such as past Internet Australia CEO Laurie Patton have argued the technology will need to be ripped up and replaced in the next decade.
Mr Patton has been unrelenting in his assertion that not rolling out full fibre will mean expensive upgrades.
However, NBN Co maintains the multi-technology approach has allowed for a far speedier rollout and that new technologies can be deployed when they become available to meet future needs.
“We’re already starting that to some degree,” NBN Co chief network engineer officer Peter Ryan said
“Next year we’ll introduce fibre to the kerb as the next evolution of technology – again it has an upgrade path that will meet the needs of Australians into the future.”
Plenty of users have reported dropouts and lower than expected speeds after moving onto the NBN – something the project’s chief engineer says is “inevitable” in a project of such size and scale .