Greater connectivity for Magnetic and Palm Islands under NBN investment
Major improvements to the NBN announced today will boost connectivity for Magnetic Island and Palm Island residents and businesses, while homes in a number of Townsville suburbs will be able to access faster connections.
Under the improvements, communities connected to the NBN via Sky Muster satellite – which include Magnetic and Palm Islands – will be able to access unmetered data for 16 hours of the day (12am-4pm), a vast improvement on the current 6-hour window of 1am-7am, by mid this year.
Average monthly data allowance will also increase from 55GB to 90GB once an upgrade to other technology frees up bandwidth on the satellite system in around two-and-a-half years’ time.
Federal Member for Herbert Phillip Thompson said the $480-million Federal Government investment would allow businesses on the islands to grow, and residents to be able to download more of what’s important to them.
“Access to the internet is absolutely critical wherever you live in Australia, but the challenges with connectivity on Magnetic and Palm Islands is something that has been raised with me regularly,” Mr Thompson said.
“With these improvements, locals won’t have to worry as much about how much they’re downloading and when – which means it’ll be easier to do business, easier to connect with family and friends, and allow more access to things like streaming services.
“The more we do to free up bandwidth on satellite by investing in the network, the better outcomes we can get for people in our island communities.
“Having said that, I will always keep pushing the need for faster and more reliable internet.”
Also as part of today’s announcement, upgrades to the fixed wireless network – which services some homes in Alice River, Bohle Plains, Kelso, Condon, Rasmussen, Wulguru and Northern Beaches – will enable faster download speeds thanks to advances in 5G technology.
After the upgrades, due to be completed by the end of 2024, typical wholesale downloads in busy hours will be 50 Mbps, compared to the current 6 Mbps.
Meanwhile residents in six Townsville suburbs will be able to upgrade to a direct fibre connection to their home, enabling ultrafast download speeds of close to 1000 megabits per second.
By the end of 2023, people living in Annandale, Idalia, Mt Louisa, Deeragun, Douglas and Bushland Beach will be able to contact their service provider to access an upgrade from Fibre to the Node (FTTN) to upgrade to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), dependent on the speed tier ordered.
To find out if their premises may be eligible to upgrade from FTTN to FTTP, residents can register for updates at http://www.nbn.com.au/fttpupgrade.
ENDS