NBN Co has announced that its fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) customer pilot for the national broadband network (NBN) has gone live with successful and fast speeds.
The news comes after Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced earlier this year that NBN Co will be using a mix of broadband technologies, including FTTN, existing fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connections, hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC), and fixed wireless and satellite, rather than the majority-FTTP solution of the previous government.
NBN Co cited small business owner Martin McInnes from NSW reaching download speeds of up to 96 mbps and upload speeds of up to 30 mbps during the customer pilot.
While these speeds might be promising, NBN Co did point out that as it is only a wholesaler, speeds may end up being different for end-users using different providers..
NBN quicker
The FTTN solution utilises a fibre connection up to a node located some distance away from a premise, while existing copper lines connect from the node to a customer's premise.
"The early results and real customer experiences such as Mr McInnes's demonstrate that existing technologies such as the copper network are capable of playing a vital role in delivering the NBN quicker, more efficiently and cheaper for all Australians," said NBN Co CEO Bill Morrow.
Currently, 238,000 homes and businesses are already connected to the NBN, build preparation works and construction underway for a further 59,000 premises. NBN Co will also be conducting a construction trial with Telstra of another 1000 nodes across NSW and Queensland.
"Our plans to build more than 300 additional nodes on top of our construction trial with Telstra will see us benchmark industry best practices as we gear up for wide-scale deployment of the FTTN technology," Morrow said.
