Up to 1 million homes outside of Australia’s major cities have been promised faster internet under a $750m upgrade of the national broadband network.
The Morrison government has pledged $480m to improve NBN infrastructure in the bush in a pre-election budget sweetener in a bid to charm regional voters before Australians head to the polls in May.
The network upgrade is expected to take about two years, with NBN Co to chip in the remaining $270m out of its own funds.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher announced the funding on Tuesday, saying the upgrades would improve speeds for homes with fixed wireless services and increase data limits for rural properties that depend on the two Sky Muster satellites.
The NBN relies on these technologies in the bush, where the distance between properties means homes can’t as easily be connected to the network with the fibre-optic cables that are used around the large cities.
Mr Fletcher said the upgrade would mean 12,000 additional homes could switch from the slower Sky Muster to NBN fixed wireless, freeing up capacity on the satellite network for those who need to use it.
“It means higher speed services on the NBN fixed wireless network; and it means higher amounts of data can be used by households and business customers,” Mr Fletcher said.
“The upgrade will expand the fixed wireless footprint coverage by up to 50 per cent.”
The investment comes after last year’s regional telecommunications review found Australians couldn’t always rely on the mobile and fixed wireless services available to them despite this access being more important than ever.
The report recommended “holistic upgrades” to the NBN’s fixed wireless network to improve internet speeds, as well as an expansion of this network into areas currently serviced by Sky Muster satellites.
Under the upgrade announced on Tuesday, all 750,000 homes that use the fixed wireless service should have access to internet speeds of 100 megabits per second.
A faster, 250 megabit service should be available on 85 per cent of the properties.
The government says average monthly data allowances for standard Sky Muster plans will increase to 55 gigabytes in the short term, increasing to 90GB once the fixed wireless upgrade is complete.
Regional Communications Minister Bridget McKenzie flagged further government funding in response to the report, which she said would be announced “over the coming weeks”.
“The NBN is a critical part of our national infrastructure and economy, enabling employment, connecting families, and supporting business,” she said.
If Labor wins the election, Anthony Albanese has promised to provide the more than 10 million homes that rely on fixed line wireless services with “world class” internet speeds by 2025
The Opposition Leader made the $2.4 billion election pitch in November last year, which included expanding xjmtzywfull-fibre NBN access to 1.5 million homes.
Mr Albanese at the time accused the Coalition of rolling out “second-rate” technology.
Tony Abbott’s Coalition government in 2013 abandoned Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises model, instead opting for a mix of technologies to save costs, which have blown out.
