Here’s how they’re helping improve the way Australians experience the nbn and how it can benefit you.
From humble beginnings to one of Australia’s largest telecommunication providers
With its humble beginnings in a Morwell living room, where Phillip Britt and John Reisinger launched Wideband Networks to solve regional connectivity—proof that a values-driven, regional startup can become an ASX success story. To a new and ambitious Look-to-28 Strategic Vision underpinned by continued growth, with commitments that it is already meeting and working to exceed.
Aussie Broadband was born from the merger of two regional internet service providers in 2008, Wideband Networks and Westvic Broadband.
Since then, it has grown to become one of Australia’s leading telecommunications and technology providers.
In 2009 nbn® was announced by the federal government when they announced the formation of the National Broadband Network (NBN), a nation-wide plan to connect Australia to high-speed broadband. In 2016, the rollout of the nbn forced Aussie Broadband into a “get big or get out” moment. Phil Britt, Aussie Broadband’s, co-founder, loves a challenge. So Aussie Broadband announced it would connect to all of the NBN’s 121 points of interconnect (POIs) across Australia. No small ISP had been able to do this before, and the industry believed it was impossible at the time. Since that time, a lot has changed for Aussie Broadband.
“These were formative years for Aussie Broadband, and the decisions we made then really shaped the Aussie Broadband our customers know and love us for today,” said Aussie Broadband Group Executive Residential Jono Prosser. “We’ve gone on to grow our network, undertake numerous acquisitions, and grow our customer base all while continuing to be Australia’s Most Trusted Telco for five years running, as determined by Roy Morgan.”
The recent shift in the telco industry
From the emergence of Leosats to the shift to 5G, the telco landscape has also seen major changes in that time that have shaped how we experience connectivity today and just how much we value staying connected in an increasingly digital world.
One of the biggest changes to emerge in recent years is nbn’s Fibre Connect program, which offers free last-mile fibre upgrades for eligible Fibre to the Node (FTTN) and Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) connections. This program is removing legacy technology like copper and replacing it with more reliable, resilient and future-proof technology like fibre in an effort to close the tech divide we have in connectivity.
More recently, nbn’s Accelerate Great program has seen the wholesale download and upload speeds of nbn’s three highest residential speed products on Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), and Hybrid-fibre Coaxial (HFC) be increased free of charge. For instance, that means nbn’s previous 100/20 plan (Home Fast on FTTP and HFC) is now offering five times wholesale faster download speeds (500 Mbps) and double the upload speeds (50 Mbps).
How does this benefit the average Australians?
While nbn ‘builds the highway’ Aussie Broadband will make sure your car will actually drive fast on the ground.
With data usage continuing to increase, and the number of connected devices in Australian homes continuing to grow, the Fibre Connect and Accelerate Great programs have been introduced to meet the ever-growing connectivity needs of Australian homes and businesses.
So, while the NBN may provide the infrastructure, Aussie Broadband improves:
- How fast it feels
- How reliable it is
- How easy it is to upgrade
- How well it works for real people
- Much faster speeds (multi-gig internet)
The biggest change already happening is speed.
- New plans launched in 2025 offer up to 2Gbps (2000 Mbps) downloads
- Existing tiers were massively boosted (e.g. 100 → 500 Mbps, 250 → 750 Mbps)
- These faster plans are now rolling out across Australia
In practical terms: Streaming, gaming, downloads, and working from home will feel almost instant—especially on newer connections.
Shift to full fibre (goodbye copper)
The long-term direction is clear: replace old copper-based connections with fibre.
- Over 3.5 million homes became eligible for fibre upgrades by the end of 2025
- The government is funding upgrades so ~95% of remaining FTTN users can move to fibre
- Fibre is now becoming the dominant technology on the network
Why this matters: Fibre is more reliable, faster, and less affected by distance or weather than old copper lines.
Most homes getting “future-proofed”
NBN Co’s goal is basically to modernise the whole network:
- Around 90% of fixed-line homes can now access gigabit or higher speeds
- Continuous upgrades are planned to keep up with rising data demand
- Households now average dozens of connected devices (TVs, phones, smart homes, etc.)
Translation: The network is being built to handle the next 10–20 years of internet usage.
Smarter network + better performance
Future NBN isn’t just faster—it’s also:
- More reliable (less congestion and dropouts)
- Better for uploads (important for Zoom, cloud, content creation)
- Designed for low latency (good for gaming and real-time apps)
Short term (now–2027):
- Rapid fibre upgrades
- Faster plans becoming standard (500–1000 Mbps)
- More homes eligible for gigabit+
Medium term:
- Copper mostly phased out
- Multi-gig (2Gbps+) more common
- Better upload speeds
Long term:
- Fully fibre-based network
- Comparable to top global broadband systems
- Supports AI, smart homes, remote work, and high-bandwidth tech
The Vision for the Future
The future of Australia’s NBN (National Broadband Network) is actually pretty clear now—it’s moving toward faster speeds, more fibre, and fewer old copper connections.
With Aussie Broadband at the helm of reinvention, the NBN is moving from a “patchwork network” to a modern, fibre-heavy, high-speed system. If you’re on fibre (or getting upgraded soon), your internet experience will improve a lot over the next few years.
Here’s a peek into the exciting future of nbn
The move to full fibre is about ensuring customers are connected to the latest and greatest technology (fibre), which is leaps and bounds more resilient than legacy tech (like copper).
“Aussie Broadband has always been committed to the long-term interests of customers, and with our national appetite for bandwidth and data growing exponentially, we have always believed that full fibre is the best long-term solution,” says Jono Prosser.
Legacy tech currently sees three to four times the fault rate of fibre, meaning millions of Australians are still trapped in a cycle of frustrating copper-line issues resulting in poor internet performance. These are issues that sit within the nbn, and ones that are solved by moving to fibre.
Jono continues, “Moving to fibre is the easiest thing to remove the annoyance of poor internet. Even when there are storms and floods, as long as there is still electricity, fibre continues to work. Copper often doesn’t. Once you’re set-up and your Wi-Fi is working, you’ll probably never need to talk to us again. Of course, that breaks our heart as we love talking to our customers!”
How will fibre benefit the average Australian?
For many Australians, the upgrade to fibre feels like a daunting project rather than a simple speed boost. Those using low speed/low-cost plans or those who are less tech savvy often just want internet that works and does so without the bells and whistles. But in an increasingly digitised world, one that has seen work from home (WFH) become increasingly adopted, smart homes become increasingly pertinent, and streaming services in many households, faster and more stable internet is needed to stay connected and for devices to be online at the same time with minimal disruptions.
When it comes to the benefits of fibre, it is a more reliable and future proof outcome for customers than legacy copper lines. Copper wiring relies on electrical signals, which weaken over longer distances, often leading to slower speeds and less reliable service. While wireless and satellite internet can be a good alternative in areas without fibre access —particularly in regional and remote locations— these services typically have higher latency and are more susceptible to disruption from poor weather.
Fibre, by contrast, transmits data using light, allowing it to travel much longer distances with minimal signal loss; it is also far less affected by weather, as the cables are securely protected underground.
Beyond this, the raw speed of fibre far exceeds that of other fixed‑line technologies. It can comfortably support residential speeds of up to 2,000 megabits per second (Mbps), and even that only scratches the surface of its true capability.
Apart from the reliability and future-proofing benefits, fibre will also save costs over the long-term for those currently on legacy technologies like copper, which degrades more frequently and has higher maintenance costs than fibre. Full fibre also allows for a logical, sensible post-migration path where customers can upgrade their connection over time as they require.
The average Australian household is increasingly overwhelmed by a messy buffet of choice. When faced with dozens of redundant speed tiers and complex pricing structures, people often default to the cheapest option or disengage entirely, missing out on the benefits of higher-tier connectivity. Aussie Broadband works closely with nbn to advocate for a clearer, simpler wholesale pricing structure so that, along with other RSPs, we can focus on communicating the real-world value that comes with migrating to fibre and adopting higher speed internet.
“Fibre is important because it’s the technology that is built for the future, today. Think of fibre like a mobile phone, and copper like an older style home phone. Both do a good job making phone calls, but one lets you do so much more. Mobile phones changed people’s lives. Fibre has the ability to change people’s home and working lives. Things like gaming, watching Netflix, using Teams, making Video Calls for work, all those things are faster and more reliable with fibre. The spinning ‘wheel of death’ as things buffer gets relegated to history”, explains Jono.
“In terms of cost, from July 1 any customer on FTTC can switch to fibre on their current plan, with no need for a higher speed. For FTTN you still need to move up to a 500Mbps plan, but for $2 a month more (compared to a 50Mbps plan), its value is worth the cost.”
How the nbn critically supports during Australian emergencies
The nbn operates critical network infrastructure with a clear purpose of keeping communities connected before, during, and after emergencies. It’s all about continuing to support local communities.
nbn’s emergency assets such as its STAND deployments continue to support communities in their times of need. Its field and community teams, and delivery partners stand ready to reconnect the network and impacted services in challenging conditions, as part of a swift and coordinated operational response when events escalate.
The importance of this coordinated approach was clearly illustrated at the beginning of 2026, in support of communities impacted by extreme fire conditions in Victoria and severe weather and flooding in Queensland.
So, what exactly is ‘fibre resilience’?
Essentially, full fibre connections make Australians’ online experience safer and more reliable. More than 8.647 million premises are currently connected to the nbn® network, with approximately 35 per cent or 2.99 million premises on Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), which cements fibre as the dominant technology. Here’s what you need to know about it.
- It delivers greater resilience and a better customer experience, and is more resilient and faster to reconnect after storms, floods and fires, giving more Australians peace of mind during these challenging times.
- As a passive connection technology, FTTP cabling doesn’t carry electrical current and can operate underwater, making it less vulnerable to environmental impacts. There are also fewer points that require power on a fibre cable’s journey to a premises, compared to copper-based technologies.
- The Fibre Connect program will positively impact millions. Currently, more than 10 million homes and businesses are eligible to order some of the fastest residential wholesale speed tiers ever delivered on the nbn® network, while more than 1 million homes and businesses have already upgraded to full fibre through the Fibre Connect program, with many customers, particularly in regional areas, enjoying an enhanced customer experience on fibre and world-class connectivity. Work has commenced for more than 228,000 premises across the country as part of the program to upgrade more than 95 per cent of the approximately 622,000 homes and businesses remaining on copper connections, keeping the program on track to its 2030 target.
To discover more about Aussie Broadband and keep in touch about their latest news, visit www.aussiebroadband.com.au
