The NBN rollout has been eagerly anticipated in Australia, especially in rural areas where fast internet is not readily available. NBN Co is aiming to cover over 60% of the country by 2020, rolling out to 250,000 premises on average each month.
But you may have some questions about NBN, is it free? Is it compulsory? What do you need to get your house ready? And why is NBN better?
We can clear some of these up straight away. Right now a standard installation of nbn™ Equipment is currently free. And yes NBN is compulsory and 18 months after it’s been installed in your area the copper wires will be deactivated.
To get your house ready for NBN you need a modem or router that is “NBN ready” or compatible so that means replacing your old modem. NBN is better because it offers consistently faster internet, a standard ADSL internet connection offers 24Mbps, cable from 30-100Mbps and Wireless 4G can be just as fast as NBN but signal strength can fluctuate based on numerous factors.
Check if NBN is in your area
So to get your home using NBN you first need to make sure its available at your address: Type your address into this NBN roll out map. If it’s not available yet you can signup for NBN updates, they will let you know when its ready at your address, how you can prepare and making the most of your NBN.
Things to consider
But remember before you make the switch are a still some services not 100% compatible with NBN:
- Emergency call buttons
- Medical alarms
- Autodiallers
You will need to call your device provider and check for compatibility, you will also need to register your device with NBN:
- Firealarm
- Security Monitoring
- Emergency lift phone
There are some instances where NBN is available on your street and area but due to the type of building NBN is still not available:
- News builds or properties under construction
- Granny Flats
- Outbuildings
Choosing a provider
So if it is available in your area and your devices won’t be affected; you can sign up for an NBN plan with your current provider as long as they are on this provider list. Then choose a plan you meet your needs, NBN comes with a number of speeds:
- Basic (NBN 12) 12Mbps
- Standard (NBN 25) 25Mbps
- Standard Plus (NBN 50) 50Mbps
- Premium (NBN 100) at 100Mbps
If you are a heavy video streamer, gamer or have a home office uploading and downloading large files getting the fastest internet on the block will see a vast speed improvement on your old service. You can choose a slower speed plan, but you may not see much of an improvement on your old service.
So the standard NBN speed at 25Mbps is not much of an improvement on the average ADSL speed of 24Mbps.
Choosing your NBN ready Router
Once you’ve gone through 3 steps above you’ll need to go out and buy an NBN ready router. You can just do a quick Google search to find out a router to suit your needs and in your price range. NBN routers generally have a higher capacity being the newer 5GHz Wireless Standard, letting them handle more devices and improve wireless range.
