NBN Co extends full fiber upgrades to 700,000 premises in Victoria

Wholesale broadband provider NBN Co said more than 700,000 homes and businesses in the Australian state of Victoria are eligible to upgrade to a full fiber connection.

The company said Victorians are using 10% more data than just two years ago – and across Australia, data consumption has more than tripled in seven years.

The broadband provider is upgrading its network to stay ahead of that demand.

"For the average Australian household which now has 21 connected devices, fiber provides a fast, reliable and consistent online experience, even at the busiest times of the day," Jane McNamara, customer experience expert at NBN, said in a statement.

Customers who upgrade to the service provider's fastest home speed tier – Home Ultrafast – can access Internet connection that is almost 18 times faster than the average NBN home connection, offering peak wholesale speeds close to 1 Gbit/s.

"NBN fiber enhances online activities such as video calls, gaming and live streaming by providing faster response times and minimal lag. This means customers can simultaneously engage in video calls, upload photos, download large files, and enjoy online streaming or gaming with less buffering or dropouts," said McNamara.

The company claimed that a game like Call of Duty – Cold War can be downloaded in under 30 minutes on NBN's fastest residential plan compared to seven hours on standard plan.

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NBN's fiber upgrade program has received a boost from both national and federal governments.

Early this year, the Australian government injected an additional A$2.4 billion (US$1.5 billion) to roll out more fiber to communities across the country. The new investment will enable an additional 1.5 million homes and businesses currently served by fiber-to-the-node to upgrade to fiber-to-the-premises.

Furthermore, the Government of Victoria is running a A$550 million ($351 million) Connecting Victoria program that is funding broadband upgrades for over 100,000 households with more than 30,000 of these already delivered.

Once complete, the upgrades will bring fiber to the doorstep of more than 3.5 million premises across Australia by 2025, including more than 1.3 million in Victoria.