The Morrison Government has welcomed NBN Co Limited's announcement of new contracts to the value of approximately $1.1 billion to deliver the next phase of the company's $2.9 billion investment to upgrade large parts of the Fibre to the Node (FTTN) network to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), on demand.
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, said that the award of the construction contracts was a key milestone in the $4.5 billion investment, announced in 2020 to upgrade the NBN.
"The new contracts will create up to 10,000 direct jobs in the design and construction industry during the peak design and construction period," Minister Fletcher said.
"Signing these construction contracts means NBN Co is on track to make 1 Gbps speeds available to up to three-quarters of households and businesses on the fixed line network by 2023. That's blazing fast broadband.
"The Coalition inherited a failing project in 2013. Through diligent work we have got the project back on track, with today more than 8.1 million premises connected, and 70 per cent on a 50 Mbps or higher plan.
"These new contracts are consistent with our methodical approach to rolling out the NBN and continuing to upgrade it in line with user needs."
Design and construction activity has already commenced under existing contracts for new fibre to pass up to 200,000 premises.
The new contracts will cover design and construction activity for the balance of the 1.8 million additional premises to be made eligible for upgrades from FTTN to FTTP by 2023.
NBN Co will continue to design and deploy new local fibre networks to pass two million premises across the nation over the next three years.
It is expected that the first customers in eligible areas will place orders with internet retailers for fibre lead-ins enabling higher speed services by the end of this year.
