Government declares NBN mission accomplished, while thousands wait to be connected

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The federal government has declared the National Broadband Network “built and fully operational” despite 35,000 homes still waiting to be connected to the network.

However, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the number of homes yet to be connected to the NBN had shrunk considerably over the last three months and having done the heavy lifting, NBN Co was now well positioned to improve the overall quality of service.

NBN Co had flagged the total number of homes without connection at 100,000 at its financial year 2020 results in August. That number fell to around 60,000 in November and is expected to further shrink to about 35,000 by the end of the year.

With data demand growing over the network, particularly during the lockdown period, NBN Co has earmarked $4.5 billion to upgrade the network by 2023, moving around 6 million homes from last-mile copper to ultra-fast fibre connections.

Government declares NBN mission accomplished, while thousands wait to be connected