NBN Co., the operator of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN), has begun trials of fiber-based broadband service on the fifth of its "First Release" sites in Willunga, South Australia.
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Map detail of the NBN Co. fiber rollout. Willunga is a First Release site; surrounding towns will be part of the Second Release. |
Reaching about 940 premises, 91 percent of property owners have agreed to have fiber cable pre-installed so they can be "NBN-ready." During a trial that will run through October, residents will be able to order services from a group of ISPs that agreed to make their services available over the NBN.
"Willunga is the fifth and final First Release Site for NBN Co. to officially go live on the Australian mainland," said Mike Quigley, CEO of NBN Co. in a statement. "We will work closely with a number of telecommunications and broadband service providers to develop the systems and processes that will support them as they deliver more services in the future."
While still in a relatively nascent stage, NBN Co. has already connected 150 customers in the Willunga trial. Another 650 trial users are connected across all five of the mainland's First Release sites. Outside of these sites, NBN Co. said it is also offering services over the NBN in Tasmania and over its Interim Satellite Service.
To date, NBN Co. said that 24 retail ISPs have agreed to offer services in the trial phase, with 12 ready to offer service, including: AAPT, AARNet, Adam Internet, Exetel, iiNet, Internode, ispONE, Nextgen Networks, Optus, Platform Networks, Primus and Telstra.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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