JOINT RELEASE – Treasurer – World-leading Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) technology launches on NBN

The rollout of the National Broadband Network has hit another milestone with the world-leading launch of fibre to the curb (FTTC) technology.

Minister for Communications Senator Mitch Fifield was joined by Member for Cook, Treasurer Scott Morrison MP, to officially launch FTTC in Miranda, New South Wales, one of the first suburbs in Australia to have access to the new high-speed broadband technology.

‘The Turnbull Government is keeping broadband bills down and taxes lower by rolling out the NBN sooner and more affordably,’; Minister Fifield said.

‘Fibre to the curb is the latest technology to be used in the NBN rollout, and over the next few years one million premises around the country will be connected to high-speed broadband using FTTC,’; he said.

‘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,’; the Minister said.

‘Under Labor’s fantasy FTTP network, some premises cost up to $90,000 to connect to the NBN, because Labor refused to face the reality that it’s astronomically expensive to get fibre all the way into every home,’; he said.

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 premise—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 than would have been the case under Labor—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.