In a much anticipated move, nbn – the company building the country’s largest ever infrastructure undertaking – has completed a major update to the address checker function on its website. The nbn website now allows nearly every Australian to find out when they will be able to contact their preferred retailer to connect to the nbn™ network.
The update provides the most accurate view of when the nbn™ network will be available as well as what technology will be used at any given time. As the nature of the rollout requires a certain level of flexibility, nbn will continue to refresh the website to reflect any changes with the rollout.
The announcement comes as the rollout reaches more than one in three Australian homes and businesses with plans to ramp-up construction work across suburbs within capital cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
nbn’s Chief Customer Officer John Simon said: “The number one question we get asked is ‘when am I getting the nbn?’ and today’s update to our website provides the answer to that very question.”
“On average, we are making the network available to around 60,000 new homes and businesses each week, so it stands to reason that there is growing interest in when the network will be available across the country.”
“With this in mind, we have moved away from telling people when we’ll be building in their neighbourhood to when they can contact their retailer to buy a service. The change means we can better meet the interests of our retail customers as well as the Australian homes and businesses, which will benefit from fast broadband services powered by the nbn™ network.”
“The update also means for the tech enthusiasts, who are interested in what kind of technology their retailer will connect them to via the nbn™ network, that this information is available to them.”
“We have been working hard to provide as much clarity as possible on the rollout for the majority of Australians, but as is the nature of this business, people need to be prepared for change. It’s not until we are in the streets that we have a clear view of the technology available to individual homes so there are times where a different solution is determined to be better than that which was planned. The sheer size and complexity of the network build means there will always be a need for flexibility on our technology choice and service availability dates.”
“nbn relies on address information from external sources that are outside of our control, which means we do discover the odd exception within our database containing around 12 million locations. We will continue to update our website as more information becomes available.”
The nbn™ network is currently available to one in three Australians, will be half way complete by mid-year 2017, three quarters built by the following year and complete by 2020.
Inside Small Business