First tranche of Sky Muster to fixed wireless upgrade coming soon

NBN Co has added 24,000 homes and businesses that were previously listed for satellite service to its fixed wireless footprint.

The expansion of its fixed wireless network will allow 6700 premises in NSW, 6500 in Queensland, 2200 in South Australia, 1200 in Tasmania, 5900 in Victoria and 1800 in Western Australia to buy a fixed wireless-based service instead of satellite.

It's unclear if any of the 24,000 has an active NBN connection.

The work is part of a $750 million upgrade, $480 million of which is funded by the federal government, to give a total 120,000 premises an upgrade path from satellite to fixed wireless by the end of 2024.

NBN Co said the 24,000 premises were selected based on their proximity to existing fixed wireless towers, with priority given to those in the most heavily used parts of its satellite footprint.

NBN Co will start offering the fixed wireless services from mid-April.

“The Albanese Government is expanding fixed wireless access across the country to ensure local residents and businesses outside our major cities have faster and more reliable internet," communications minister Michelle Rowland said 

The satellite-to-wireless shift is taking place in parallel with an expanded fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) upgrade to fibre-to the premises (FTTP).

In February, NBN Co disclosed that it planned to have 120,000 additional FTTP premises activated by July this year under its multi-billion dollar “fibre connect” program.