From this morning, all Australians should be able to check the details of when they will be able to order a National Broadband Network service for their household, according to NBN.
NBN this morning released an update to its website, which will tell households what technology will be used to connect their home as well as when it is expected to be connected — with the website offering a window of between six months and one month depending on the status of design and construction for a particular area.
The technology and expected ready for service date are both subject to change, NBN has cautioned.
NBN last year removed its three-year construction plan from its website. That document offered detail on the type of connection expected to be used to connect a suburb.
The company has been waiting on access to the full data outlining Telstra’s hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) infrastructure footprint before opening up access to connection type information for households.
HFC is a key technology for the fixed line portion of the ‘multi-technology mix’ (MTM) rollout, along with fibre to the premises (FTTP), fibre to the node (FTTN), fibre to the basement (FTTB) and fibre to the curb (FTTC — also known as fibre to the distribution point, or FTTdp). Other premises will be connected using satellite or fixed wireless services.
“On average we are making the network available to around 60,000 new homes and businesses each week, so it stands to reason that there is growing interest in when the network will be available across the country,” NBN chief customer officer John Simon said in a statement.
“With this in mind, we have moved away from telling people when we'll be building in their neighbourhood to when they can contact their retailer to buy a service. The change means we can better meet the interests of our retail customers as well as the Australian homes and businesses which will benefit from fast broadband services powered by the NBN network.
The network rollout is scheduled for completion in 2020, and according to NBN more than a third of Australian homes and businesses are currently able to order a service. By the middle of the year, the rollout is expected to have hit the halfway mark.
The address search service is available from NBN's website.