NBN Drops Speed Requirement for Fibre Upgrade! | Dirt Report

Fibre upgrade eligibility is expanding

NBN Co is widening its proactive fibre upgrade program for premises still using problematic copper connections. The program is aimed at locations in what NBN Co calls the fibre assurance footprint, including premises affected by storm-damaged copper lines or chronically unreliable connections.

The transcript says more than 700,000 locations were eligible by 30 June 2025, up from an earlier target of about 53,000 high-risk fibre-to-the-node connections 18 months previously. NBN Co expects the number of eligible premises to pass one million by late 2025, with more than one million eligible by the first half of the 2026 financial year.

No high-speed plan requirement

A key change is the removal of the previous speed requirement. Previously, customers generally needed to order a plan offering at least 100Mbps and remain on it for a year to qualify for the proactive fibre upgrade program.

Under the revised approach described in the video, premises within the relevant fibre assurance footprint can qualify without ordering a high-speed plan. This means eligibility is based on the condition and reliability of the existing connection rather than requiring the customer to commit to a particular speed tier.

The stated reason for the change is that maintaining unreliable copper connections can be costly, while some customers on those lines cannot reach minimum speeds. Moving eligible premises to fibre is intended to improve reliability and reduce ongoing maintenance and support requirements.

More than 800,000 premises have switched

New figures cited in the report indicate that more than 800,000 homes and businesses have already moved to fibre to the premises through the upgrade program. The total pool of eligible premises is stated as 4.6 million, meaning the number that has switched remains below 20 per cent of the eligible total.

The report says infrastructure work has been completed in many locations, leaving customer take-up as an important part of the next phase. It also notes that higher speed tiers, including 250Mbps and above, are becoming more accessible, and that some plans are receiving speed increases without an additional charge. The availability and pricing of plans will depend on the customer’s internet provider and location.

Planned outage alerts will be reduced

NBN Co is also changing how it communicates planned outages. The report says that up to 70 per cent of planned outage messages may be irrelevant to the end user because the customer’s service is not actually affected.

Instead of sending notifications up to 14 days before every planned outage, NBN Co plans to send alerts within three days and only when the customer’s service is expected to be impacted. The stated aim is to reduce millions of unnecessary messages being passed through internet service providers to customers.

This change does not remove planned maintenance. It changes which events generate customer-facing notifications and when those notifications are sent.