CONSTRUCTION of the National Broadband Network (NBN) has started in the central business district to connect Orange residents to the faster internet service.
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Most residents between March and Kite street, Ploughmans Lane and Lords Place will be able to connect to the service in the second half of the year.
National Broadband Service corporate affairs manager Kelly Stevens said the type of fixed line technology rolling out in Orange was fibre to the node (FTTN).
Fibre runs from an exchange to a node in the street. It then uses the existing copper lines into homes to provide fast broadband.
“If copper is not capable of delivering adequate services to end-users then NBN is committed to remediation works to bring it to the required standard,” Ms Stevens said.
The former Rudd government proposed an all-fibre network, which was dumped by the Coalition when it won office in 2013.
Critics warn Australia’s internet speeds risk falling behind the rest of the world if not enough premises are connected by fibre optic cable, but Ms Stevens said the FTTN system was vastly superior to what Orange residents had been used to.
“By using FTTN technology NBN is making sure that we can deliver vastly improved broadband to Orange residents far quicker and more cost effectively, and with far less disruption to their homes and gardens than we could via other technologies,” she said.
“We have conducted a series of trials where this technology has delivered average download speeds of 91 megabits per second and upload speeds of 36 megabits per second.
“The global experience of FTTN deployment, as well as our trials, makes us very confident that we will deliver excellent speeds to end-users.”
These trial speeds would enable a home to stream up to 18 high-definition video streams simultaneously, or other bandwidth-intensive applications such as online learning and telehealth consultations, she said.
A 25Mbps service would allow five people on the same connection to each watch a high-definition video stream simultaneously.
“There are many factors, including in-home equipment that can affect speed,” Ms Stevens said.
“Our trials have found that even premises located at greater distances from the node, 700-800 metres, are still achieving very good speeds, which are comparable to full fibre and far better than anything they are experiencing at present.”
nicole.kuter@fairfaxmedia.com.au
