More than six million homes and businesses across Australia can now connect to the National Broadband Network (NBN) as the rollout speeds along.
NBN Co Limited (nbn) reached the halfway completed milestone on schedule in early July, and is now moving quickly to extend the network across mainland capital cities.More than 2.6 million households and businesses now have active NBN connections, and around 40,000 premises are switching on nbn-based internet connections every week. This is equivalent to switching on the entire city of Bundaberg in one week.
Construction and connection activity is under way at 1,587 separate locations across the country.
At the heart of this rollout progress is a vast field workforce and an array of engineers and technical specialists designing, building and maintaining the new network.
nbn continues to grow as a company with the rollout providing thousands of jobs to Australians including 6,700 direct employees and an external workforce of more than 24,000.
Outside of metro areas, the nbn rollout is providing work for an estimated 600 small and medium contracting companies.
In the past financial year the capital expenditure needed to drive the rapid expansion of the network reached $5.8 billion.
nbn is focused on working collaboratively with service providers to enable a smooth transition for customers when switching to the new network.
Access for all Australians to fast, reliable and affordable broadband as soon as possible is the focus of the Government’s broadband policy.
The rollout is on track to offer services to every Australian home and business by 2020.More information about the NBN rollout and how to connect is available at www.nbnco.com.au