THE National Broadband Network rollout is ahead of schedule, already connecting 100,000 South Australian premises with connections available for more than a quarter of a million premises.
NBN corporate affairs manager SA and NT Jill Bottrall hoped the rollout would be completed by 2019, a year ahead the initial plan.
“Seventy per cent of what we’ve rolled out has been in regional areas, and in terms of rural versus metropolitan, rural areas came first,” she said.
“Regional and remote areas have priority on where we choose to build first, (especially) those who have very poor or no access at all to internet.”
The fixed wireless service is being planned for the near future for towns such as Wudinna, Orroroo and Kimba, while the SkyMuster satellite is available in other areas.
Ms Bottrall said the internet speeds of 25 megabits a second would allow streaming in high definition.
“On the lowest NBN plan there is, with speeds of 12Mb/s, if you’re changing from an ADSL line you won’t notice a radical difference. You will if you opt to sign up to ‘fast broadband speeds’ with speeds starting at 25Mb/s, which is available on the satellite,” she said.
“That is a world class satellite.”
Ms Bottrall said connecting to the fixed line gave people 18 months to decide what plan, speeds and data they required.
Rendelsham resident Kayla Chambers has been connected to the NBN since August, after previously paying exuberant amounts for little data and slow internet.
“The connection has been good most of the time, sometimes there are slow periods but it is improving,” she said.
Before connecting to the NBN, Ms Chambers was using mobile broadband.
“When we moved to Rendelsham our only option was mobile broadband and phone reception is patchy, and it was going to be so expensive,” she said.
“I didn’t want to pay for something that may not work, so we waited for the NBN satellite. When it comes to book keeping, it makes it a lot quicker and easier.”
- Details: nbn.com.au