Telstra progresses Point Cook RIM-to-fibre swapout

Telstra will reach out to residents of 1500 homes at Point Cook in Melbourne "shortly" to advise them of their options when part of the suburb is migrated to fibre.

A spokesman for the telco told iTnews that the build was on track for completion in early May at which point customer connections would begin.

Telstra announced the decision to roll out fibre to 1500 homes at Point Cook near Melbourne in late December.

"There's lots of pair gain systems but not enough access to ADSL so as we were exploring how to rectify that, providing fibre made the most sense," a spokesman said at the time.

The results of the deployment would be shared with NBN Co.

The project represented a test case for pair gain-to-fibre migration in an NBN world. Pair gain systems - including remote integrated multiplexers (RIMs) - were a gateway to ADSL services for many residential users, particularly those in housing estates constructed in the past decade.

Residents in suburbs on Telstra RIMs have long complained about the speed of internet services.

NBN Co revealed on Monday it was finalising its own selection of "first release sites" across Australia where it will validate its network design in areas it believes replicate the challenges it will experience nationwide.

They included "a suburban area" with semi-detached homes and multi-dwelling units (MDUs), plus, "a smaller rural town" and "other places between the two" location types.