NBN Co is making satellite-to-fibre upgrades

NBN Co has revealed it will bring 10,000 premises in “isolated areas” into its fibre footprint, upgrading them from a satellite connection.

The company said in a regulatory filing that it is “delivering network upgrades to fibre in a small number of regional and isolated communities that [it] currently serves using the satellite network.”

“The program will see approximately 10,000 premises in 28 communities able to connect to [fibre] services at higher speeds and lower latency than currently available via satellite,” NBN Co said.

The company added that the upgrades would mean new “service levels and operational targets for these areas.”

NBN Co is separately upgrading other portions of its satellite network to fixed wireless.

Customer migrations to more reliable access technologies may allow NBN Co to retain customers that had been shifting to alternative services such as Starlink.

It will also free up satellite capacity to enable NBN Co to offer improved services to those remaining in the Sky Muster footprint.