Bexley will be one of the first St George suburbs to receive the new high-speed broadband fibre to curb (FTTC) technology in the National Broadband Network rollout.
But other suburbs in the St George region will miss out on the FTTC technology with the NBN using a range of technologies in order to meet the objective of rolling out the network to all Australians by 2020.
“Fixed line is the technology type we roll out to more densely populated areas, such as the Georges River region, which utilises fibre and will come in the form of Fibre to the Node (FTTN), Fibre to the Basement (FTTB), Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) and Fibre to the Curb (FTTC),” an NBN spokeswoman said.
“Currently, there are more than 5,100 premises within the Georges River Council region that can order retail services over the NBN network.
“Construction is currently underway to connect approximately 36,0000 premises in parts of Hurstville, Mortdale, Oatley, Allawah, Carlton, Blakehurst and Kogarah Bay.
“Some suburbs that are expected to receive the FTTC technology include, but are not limited to, parts of Bexley, Beverly Hills, Kogarah, Narwee, Riverwood, Peakhurst and Sans Souci.
“It’s important to note that FTTC is a new technology launched less than two months ago. As such, construction of FTTC in the region is expected to begin over the next few months.
“The majority of the remaining 47,000 Georges River Council residents and businesses will also be able to access the NBN network over the course of next year.”
Barton MP Linda Burney welcomed the rollout of FTTC to Bexley but criticised that other premises in St George will miss out.
“The expansion of FTTC into Bexley will ensure households and small businesses in these areas have access to faster speeds,” Ms Burney said.
“In early 2017, Labor called on the Government to abandon the copper rollout wherever feasible, and to deploy FTTC as a minimum standard instead,” she said.
“Taking fibre to the kerbside removes 90 per cent of the copper from the network when compared to second-rate Fibre to the Node technology.
“Hurstville and Beverly Hills however, have been stuck with the inferior Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial (HFC) technology.”
The FTTB technology was launched last month in Sutherland Shire by Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield.
At the time, Mr Fifield said Fibre to the Curb enables 100 megabit per second speeds and an upgrade path to gigabit per second speeds.
He said the technology will mean that internet bills will be $500 a year less a year than initially expected.
FTTC facts:
FTTC can deliver the same 100Mbps speeds as fibre to the premise (FTTP) technology but at lower cost, in much less time and with far less disruption to people's property.
FTTC delivers fibre-optic cable all the way to a pit outside a home or business. Existing copper lines are then used to connect from the curb to the premises, avoiding the need to trench through driveways, dig up gardens or drill through walls.
FTTC is being delivered at a fraction of the cost of FTTP (approximately $2,900 per premise vs $4,400 per premise), ensuring household broadband bills stay lower while still delivering fast broadband speeds.
The new technology can deliver broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps, depending on the broadband speed plan chosen by a user, and the network capacity of their chosen retail service provider.
NBN is already investigating upgrades with new technologies such a G.fast which will allow for even higher speeds over FTTC in future.
Today, the NBN is available to 6.5 million Australian homes and businesses, and more than 3.7 million have already connected to the network.
The NBN rollout is on-track to be available to every home and business in Australia in 2020.
