- Plan to roll out national broadband network announced
- Fibre optic cable construction effort to take three years
- The announcement is a "major turning point" for the project
MORE than 3.5 million Australian homes will have access to the high speed national broadband network (NBN) within the next three years.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and NBN Co Ltd boss Mike Quigley today announced details of the rollout at a special event in Sydney.
Construction of the fibre optic cable section of the network will be underway or completed in areas containing 3.5 million homes and businesses in 1500 towns and suburbs across Australia.
NBN Co, the Government-owned builder of the $35.9 billion network, is commissioned to deliver high-speed fibre cable broadband to 93 per cent of homes, schools and businesses by 2021.
Ms Gillard said more than one million premises in NSW will be connected, along with 700,000 in Victoria, 680,000 in Queensland, 400,000 in Western Australia, 65,000 in the Northern Territory and more than 200,000 in Tasmania.
Click here to find out when the NBN will roll out in your area
However, Mr Quigley said some suburbs will be left out to avoid congestion during the roll out.
Mr Quigley said several factors decided the locations of the towns and suburbs in the three-year rollout.
"We had to take into account what the government asked us to do, which was get to a balance between regional and metropolitan Australia, get a good balance across the states and complete Tasmania by 2015," Mr Quigley said.
Some four per cent of premises will receive broadband through fixed wireless networks, while the remaining three per cent will have a satellite service in areas that don't receive cable or wireless.
Mr Conroy said that why some people may be disappointed that the NBN does not extend to their areas, they should keep in mind that Tony Abbott would stop the NBN rollout dead in its tracks.
?No Australian will miss out, but it was impossible to fit 12 million homes in to a three year plan,? Mr Conroy said.
The ramping up of the rollout program follows the sealing of agreements between NBN Co and the owner of Australia's aging copper wire network Telstra, which took effect at the beginning of March.
Telstra will be switching off the current network in 18 months time. However, Mr Quigley said it will happen one sector at a time, module by module.
He also emphasised that as the existing copper network is gradually retired, Australia will be connected to NBN.
Ms Gillard said in 12 months time there will be another update, with announcements of new suburbs that have been added to the rollout.
It will take an average 12 months from the release by NBN Co of detailed maps of each location to when households and businesses can order broadband services from their telephone or internet service provider.
Mr Quigley dismissed claims the selected locations were due to politic considerations.
"Our planners wouldn't know an electoral boundary if they fell over one," he said.
- With AAP
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