VIC:Melbourne suburb set for NBN connection

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2011
VIC:Melbourne suburb set for NBN connection

By Kellee Nolan

MELBOURNE, Aug 3 AAP - It's been turned on in Tasmania and NSW, now Victoria is set
to connect to the high speed fibre-optic national broadband network (NBN).

Part of Brunswick, in Melbourne's inner north, will be the first Victorian area to
be connected to the fibre-optic cable NBN, on Thursday.

Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will be at Brunswick Town Hall to mark
the occasion, after officially connecting Kiama Downs and Minnamurra on the NSW south
coast in July, Armidale in northern NSW in May and three Tasmanian towns in August 2010.

Brunswick will be the first metropolitan area to be added to the NBN, which is aimed
over the next decade to provide the high speed fibre-optic cable network to 93 per cent
of Australians and a slower fixed wireless or satellite broadband for the remaining seven
per cent.

Brunswick is one of five sites chosen to be the first connected on the mainland to
test the network design and construction methods and provide information to help the network
roll-out.

Other fibre-optic test sites to soon be connected are suburbs of Townsville in Queensland
and Willunga in South Australia.

Senator Conroy on Wednesday announced work will also start on another six new fibre-optic
sites in Queensland, NSW and the ACT by January 2012.

The new sites, plus extensions of the current network sites, are expected to bring
more than 50,000 premises into the fibre optic network, with people able to access the
high speed broadband service about a year after work begins on their site.

Senator Conroy also announced areas surrounding Ballarat in Victoria, Darwin in the
Northern Territory, Geraldton in Western Australia, Tamworth in NSW and Toowoomba in Queensland
will also be the first to be provided with access to the fixed wireless network, which
offers download speeds of 12Mbps, compared with the 100Mbps of the fibre-optic technology
being delivered to 93 per cent of the nation.

"Thousands of premises in these locations will be provided with access to the fixed
wireless network that will offer peak download speeds of 12Mbps," Senator Conroy said
in a statement.

AAP kn/pmu/jnb

KEYWORD: NBN VIC

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