Fast internet is FINALLY on the way for your business

As a small business owner, the speed of my internet connection plays a major role in the day-to-day running of my business. Slow internet kills productivity, so it’s great news for small business owners all over the country that we are finally getting the internet speeds we deserve, writes Orion Marketing founder, Marshall Thurlow.    

Across Australia, a million more households and businesses will be able to choose faster, more reliable broadband as the rollout of full fibre to the premises (FTTP) broadband continues.

How the NBN rollout is (finally) speeding up our businesses

The FTTP rollout anticipates coverage for 10 million premises, about 90 per cent of premises in Australia, by the end of 2025. That’s great news for my business and for my clients’ businesses (as well as my Netflix consumption).

This is a sharp contrast to the early years of the NBN project, which were plagued by political bickering, complaints about cost, problems with construction, delays, unfavourable media coverage and a generally botched rollout.

In fact, for most of the 2010s, the national broadband network was criticised as being slow, expensive and obsolete. In 2016, the Akamai State of the Internet Report confirmed that our internet speeds were slower than 59 other countries, including Thailand, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Poland and Kenya.

Read on for my take on why it’s taken us so many years to get the internet we have today.

Why has NBN taken so long?

The initial promise of a national broadband network won Labor the election in 2007, and NBN Co was announced in April 2009 to provide terrestrial fibre network coverage for 93 per cent of Australian premises by the end of 2020. Fixed wireless and satellite coverage would serve the remaining 7 per cent.

In 2013, the Coalition won the federal election. Instead of promising to fix up the (by this stage) heavily delayed FTTP rollout, they proposed a multi-technology-mix (MTM) system.

In what they claimed would be a cheaper option, the Coalition planned to repurpose some of the previously discarded copper networks to create a majority-FTTN network, giving everyone download speeds of 25 megabits per second by 2016 and 50 Mbps by 2019.

However, as well as costing significantly more than expected, it was widely found to be underwhelming at best. There were frequent complaints of users being forced to migrate to the NBN, and having to pay more for slower speeds.

After more than a decade of picking apart and cutting corners on the original plan (as well as several billion dollars of wasted investment), in 2020 the Coalition government gave up on the MTM project and announced a $4.5 billion package to install FTTP as was originally planned.

This new commitment to FTTP has changed the narrative of the NBN rollout in Australia. While it has now cost significantly more and taken significantly longer than any of us expected, broadband users are excited about the availability of high-speed internet plans, including 250 Mbps, 500 Mbps and, more recently, 1,000 Mbps (aka gigabit internet).

“As more businesses rely on cloud technology and digital conferencing, more people run businesses from home, and more of our everyday activities are done online, we are seeing a greater need for lightning fast and super reliable internet connections,” said David Michaels, head of sales and marketing at national broadband provider Swoop.

“Our new Home Ultrafast plan leverages the NBN’s FTTP technology to offer incredibly fast and reliable internet connectivity to homes and businesses. We’re thrilled that NBN is rolling out FTTP across the country and we’ll be able to offer our NBN 1000 plan to more customers this year and to 90 per cent of Australia by 2025,” added Mr Michaels.

FTTP is a win for business

One of the most frustrating aspects of the botched NBN project was how much it held back the local business community. Slow, unreliable and expensive internet was detrimental to every stage of all businesses – including mine.

Now, at least, the FTTP rollout is forecast to have a positive impact on the Australian economy, especially in our increasingly remote world.

Faster internet speeds allow businesses of all sizes to work more efficiently, speeding up processes, making it easier to communicate with clients and colleagues in real-time, and facilitating whole industries like eCommerce. This increase in productivity can reduce costs and increase profits, creating jobs and contributing to economic growth.

FTTP also makes it easier for people to work remotely, enabling organisations to hire or contract the right person for any role, regardless of location. It also lets workers work from home more effectively, reducing the need for expensive office space, limiting commutes and associated costs, and giving workers back more of their own time.

This has opened doors for my business, as I can now work so much more easily with clients and peers wherever they are, and I know that I can operate just as efficiently from my office space as from home.

As our internet speeds up, we also anticipate greater innovation; faster internet connectivity enables entrepreneurs and innovators to develop and launch new products and services more quickly. This can create whole new markets and industries, providing increased opportunities for job creation and economic growth.

“The social and economic benefits of the FTTP rollout cannot be overstated,” said Mr Michaels. “Fibre delivers faster upload and download speeds, opening up a world of possibilities for both home and business users.”

The rollout is gaining speed, and we’re well on the way to having the internet we’ve been waiting for, and that our businesses deserve.

This article was first published on Flying Solo, read the original here.

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