ALMOST half of Dubbo will receive second-rate technology under the broadband rollout, according to mayor Mathew Dickerson.
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Following a meeting with federal communications minister Mitch Fifield on Wednesday evening, councillor Dickerson confirmed fears the city would receive a mixture of fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) and fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) technologies.
Of the city's seven Fibre Servicing Area Modules (FSAMs), four would receive the super-fast FTTP technology, guaranteed to deliver download/upload speeds of 100/40 megabits per second.
The remaining three FSAMs will be connected to FTTN, which nbn guarantees will deliver minimum speeds of 25/5Mbps.
Cr Dickerson said fears of a digital divide in Dubbo had been confirmed.
"The fibre-to-the-node is not that much different to ADSL[2+]," Cr Dickerson said.
"You've got ADSL 2+ at 20 megabits per second. That's 10-year-old technology and you're only going from 20 to 25.
"Your [mobile] phone, using 4G, is capable of better speeds than FTTN."
Nbn reports trials of FTTN technology have delivered speeds of up to 100Mbps, far in excess of the minimum 25Mbps guaranteed on the network.
"Most premises will get speeds over 50Mbps, with a minimum wholesale speed of 25Mbps," an nbn spokesperson said.
Cr Dickerson said he was more concerned about "future-proofing" the network, with retailers in Singapore already offering 1,000 Mbps plans on their super-fast FTTP Next Generation National Broadband Network.
"The fibre is easily capable of churning out thousands of megabits a second, and higher, so it becomes a very dramatic difference," Cr Dickerson said.
"There's no way they can ever squeeze 1000 megabits a second out of copper."
The nbn spokesperson said "demand for extremely high speeds is simply not here yet", and an upgraded FTTN network will be able to reach higher speeds in the future.
"Of the 560,000 premises connected to FTTP today around 80 per cent chose speeds of 25Mbps or less," the spokesperson said.
"The FTTN network will be upgradeable as more demand emerges. For example, we are trialling upgrades to FTTN that are getting speeds of 500Mbps."
The spokesperson said it was up to Dubbo City Council to make sure the city took advantage of the NBN, with Dubbo set to be "one of the most connected cities in Australia" by next year.
"Many councils are developing digital strategies to maximise the huge opportunities broadband will bring; hopefully Dubbo City Council will do the same," the nbn spokesperson said.
"The real "digital divide" is felt by families whose kids can't do their homework because they don't have broadband, not those who have 80Mbps instead of 100.
"That is why nbn is rolling out the network as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible, to make sure no families are left behind.