Australia unveils broadband release sites

Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy has revealed the first five Australian locations to receive a high-speed wireless connection as part of the Federal Government’s flagship National Broadband Network (NBN) scheme.

The first regions that will receive NBN’s 12Mbps fixed wireless service are Ballarat, Victoria, Darwin in the Northern Territory, Geraldton, Western Australia, Tamworth in New South Wales and Toowoomba, Queensland.

“The early rollout of next generation fixed wireless technologies to communities in regional Australia is an important milestone in the delivery of affordable, high-speed broadband,” Conroy said in a statement.

The fixed wireless service is intended to cover four per cent of premises that won’t have access to NBN’s fibre. The other three per cent of premises that won’t have fibre will have access to satellite services.

The NBN initiative aims to deliver high-speed broadband to all Australians. The NBN is a new, wholesale-only, open access, high-speed broadband network.

The project seeks to connect 93 per cent of Australian homes, schools and businesses to a high-speed fibre network, capable of providing broadband speeds of up to one gigabit per second.

The remaining premises will be connected through a combination of next-generation fixed wireless and satellite technologies providing peak speeds of 12 Mbps.

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