Australia’s national broadband network is finally having its glow-up moment. After 10 years of delays, debates, and jokes about “buffering,” NBN Co has made a year of actual progress. The results show it’s not just meeting targets, it’s changing the way the country connects.
Finally, fibre is no longer the slow lane
For years, Australians were told that fiber was going to change everything. In 2025, it finally has. More than 2.6 million homes and businesses are now connected to whole fiber – an increase of 23 percent in just twelve months. Copper is fast fading as the country embraces the kind of internet speeds that it has been awaiting.
That change is easy to identify among daily habits. The average household is now burning through more than 500 gigabytes of data a month, up ten percent since last year. In comparison, fiber users average closer to 600 gigabytes. Streaming and gaming are driving it, as is remote work, and so is the overall transition to faster-than-ever differentiation of digital.
Even the entertainment sectors are changing it. Recent casino sites in Australia are hitting the mark higher, with stylish mobile platforms, swift AUD payments, and impressive bonuses that load in seconds, something older systems have had an issue achieving.
Fiber is no longer a technical luxury, but it’s part of life. From their workplaces to their weekend entertainment, Australians now expect the internet to keep up, and finally, it does.
A speed boost worth noticing
For many Australians, the days of stopping Netflix to check the Wi-Fi may finally be over. Starting in December this year, NBN Co is rolling out a 500Mbps wholesale tier, five times faster than most customers have now. Retailers will also begin to test multi-gigabit speeds on some fiber and hybrid connections before Christmas.
Ellie Sweeney, the company’s new CEO, says it’s part of a bigger push to make high-speed internet an everyday expectation rather than a luxury. “It is our responsibility and privilege to deliver the digital infrastructure today that will be critical to the way Australians work, learn, connect, and grow in the future,” she said.
A rural revolution
The NBN story is, wherever it goes, no longer just a city story. In regional and remote Australia, the footprint of the network is growing at a faster rate than ever. A Fixed Wireless network now covers an area of 345,000 sq. kilometers, connecting communities that were previously connected by patchy signals. The upgraded Sky Muster Plus Premium satellite plans, which now have uncapped data, have had a 24 percent increase in usage.
The most significant leap, however, is coming from the sky. NBN Co’s collaboration with Amazon’s Project Kuiper will bring low-earth-orbit satellite internet broadband to over 300,000 remote premises, with an improved connection speed and reduced dropouts. For rural-region farmers, teachers, and small business owners in Australia, that’s a game-changer.
The business of better broadband
NBN Co’s books have the same look and substance as its cables. Revenue for the year hit $5.7 billion, up four percent. In comparison, earnings before tax and depreciation grew eight percent to $4.2 billion.
Households are also paying a little bit more. Still, average revenue per user is up to $50 a month, which is linked to people upgrading to faster plans.
Operating costs are down, capital spending is down, and upgrades are speeding up. More than 8.6 million premises are now connected to the network, and nearly a third are on high-speed tiers of 100 Mbps or greater. In short: the company is running leaner, faster, and smarter than it’s been in years.
A digital spine for a transforming nation
And it’s not just that smooth streaming prevails because of this broadband boom. It’s fuelling an enormous change in the way Australians live and work. Faster internet is being used as the glue to hold remote jobs, virtual classrooms, and online healthcare. NBN Co’s research partner, Accenture, estimates the upgraded network could help add $400 billion to Australia’s GDP by 2030 through gains to productivity and innovation.
It is a vast number, but when you consider the size, that’s understandable. By the end of 2025, more than 10 million premises or 90 percent of the fixed-line network will be eligible for near-gigabit speeds. That’s an extent of reach no other infrastructure project in the country can match.
Efficient systems, less dependencies
Behind the scenes, NBN Co is quietly reinventing the way it works. Artificial intelligence is helping to do a lot of the heavy lifting, from DesignAI tools to automating network planning to AskNBN to help technicians get answers in an instant. AI is also used for customer service analytics to detect problems before users are even aware of them.
At the same time, the company is becoming greener. It has issued more than $8.7 billion in Green and Sustainability Bonds. It is the largest corporate issuer of sustainable finance in Australia. The money is supporting projects to reduce energy consumption and put the company on par with net zero emissions by 2045.
Fibre to the future
The government’s latest $3 billion equity boost, coupled with investment by NBN Co itself, will be used to pay for upgrades for the last 620,000 copper-connected premises remaining on fiber to the Node. Those households are expected to be converted entirely by 2030, with half of them to be in regional Australia.
The next big push, dubbed Accelerate Great, will see average speeds increase again in 2026, without adding extra cost for retailers. The idea is simple: provide Australians with a ready-built network that the digital decade offers.
