Australian manufacturing is set to receive a substantial boost in internet capacity following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s announcement of a $3 billion equity injection into the National Broadband Network (NBN) during a press conference in Canberra.
The funding will facilitate the expansion of the NBN to an additional 11 million homes and businesses, upgrading speeds and capacity to meet the growing demands of internet use in 2025, compared to when the system was first implemented more than a decade ago.
A major portion of the investment will target the national fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network, which serves many older manufacturing facilities that transitioned from the copper wire communications infrastructure once used for landline phones.
Although FTTN connections were initially the most straightforward to upgrade, they are now among the most outdated and insufficient for businesses looking to leverage cloud computing and artificial intelligence, given their limited speed.
With an election on the horizon, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese framed the announcement as a commitment to manufacturing and its supporters.
“Families and businesses deserve high-speed Internet at an affordable price,” Albanese said.
“Labor created the National Broadband Network, and only Labor will finish the NBN and, importantly, keep the NBN in public hands.”
Albanese emphasised that the NBN should not only be accessible but also affordable, describing it as essential national infrastructure.
He underscored its role in supporting Australia’s economy and everyday activities, pointing out how remote work has been made possible thanks to improved broadband access.
The upgrades are expected to be completed by 2030, though businesses will likely experience improvements before then.
NBN CEO Ellie Sweeney confirmed that the government’s 2022 initiative to upgrade 1.5 million FTTN-connected homes and businesses to full fibre was on track to meet its target by the end of 2025, on time and budget.
“In October of 2022, the government and NBN announced an upgrade for close to 1.5 million homes and businesses on the FTTN technology, that is the copper network, and that was an upgrade to provide those 1.5 million homes and businesses to a full fibre network,” said NBN chief executive Ellie Sweeney.
“I am delighted to let you know that today, NBN is on track to deliver that upgraded road map by the end of December 2025 and that will be on time and on budget.”
The announcement adds an upgrade path for the remaining 622,000 homes and businesses still reliant on the FTTN system, with a goal to complete these upgrades by 2030.
