NBN to Move 40,000 Premises to Fixed Wireless

The National Broadband Network, in its effort to ease congestion on its long term satellite, will move around 40,000 premises around the country off the long-term satellite service onto other services, namely nbn^® Fibre plans and nbn^® Fixed Wireless plans. Their goal is to free up capacity for their other satellite users.
In October last year, the NBN revealed its plans of setting restrictions for users on the long-term satellite service (LTSS) after issues on capacity on their interim satellite services came up.
In their new Fair Use Policy, a standard 75GB plan would be introduced, along with 100GB, and 150GB premium options – all with the aim of easing congestion.
As previously mentioned in our article Sky Muster Brings Bigger Data Allowances, customers would have to adhere to restricted data usage during peak times. The data caps, depending on tier, would range from 15GB to 25GB download during peak periods. The same quotas apply for uploads.
Exceeding the data cap would mean slower speeds for customers, with data being cut down to as little as 256kbps for both downloads and uploads.
It was also announced in September of last year that the NBN would begin making use of network monitoring tools to prevent users from using up high amounts of bandwidth on the LTSS.
Finally in December 2015, the network officially announced wholesale plans for satellite, scheduled to go live this year.
The network revealed that to be able to offer additional capacity on the long-term satellite, the interim service had four week, 50GB usage threshold to fight ongoing congestion, it had to move 40,000 premises onto other fixed technologies and off satellite.
However, they declined to discuss in detail which regions were going to be affected by the change in strategy, stating the move would typically involve premises in coastal areas.
A spokesperson from the network said they will provide updates on the specifics of those areas in their construction updates.
Gavin Williams, NBN Fixed Wireless and Satellite head, said the additional 240 Fixed Wireless towers could help optimise load on the satellite and improve its capacity.
“What we determined here is we can support coverage of premises in the higher demand beams with that combination of satellite beam optimisation and fixed wireless and fixed line growth, so we can utilise all the availability of that second satellite,” Mr. Williams said.
The first of two long-term satellites of the NBN was launched in October last year and is expected to go live to users in April of this year.
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Article originally published as: NBN Shifts 40k premises off satellite to offer more data
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