High internet speed is something a lot of people in most developed countries get to enjoy, they can stream videos, make international conference calls, and do all sorts of day to day activities without worrying about their internet speed. South Korea is the leading nation when it comes to high internet speeds; they average 27.9 megabytes per second, while Japan is second at 12.8.
The reason why South Korea’s internet speed is so high is because they have almost accomplished their plan of deploying fiber to the premises (FTTP) networks around the country, which will give their residents universal broadband connectivity at high speeds. Japan and a few other countries like Singapore and New Zealand, have followed South Korea’s lead, and are also working on bringing universal broadband connectivity to their various countries.
Surprisingly, not all developed countries have high internet speeds, Australia, one of the most developed countries in the world, has been hovering around the world average for internet speed (3.8 Mbps) for a while now. That is about to change because the government introduced a plan to provide broadband connectivity to all the residents of the country. The plan is called the National Broadband Network (NBN), which the government has started rolling out gradually since 2011, and will continue to do so until they reach their target of connecting the whole country.
When the plan was first introduced in 2009, there were a lot of skeptics, not only because it came with a price tag of $45 billion, but because it seemed impossible to connect a country as large as Australia because of its size, but the fact that the country is sparsely populated, and it would be almost impossible to get access to the rural areas.
After revising the initial plan, the government came up with an alternative that will cost $15 billion less than the original plan, and still provide access to faster internet speeds for most of the country. The new plan will provide FTTP networks to new housing developments, and future housing projects, which accounts for 21 percent of the homes and businesses in the country, then the other 71 percent will be on a fiber to the node (FTTN) system, which will use the existing copper wires to provide them with broadband access.
Once construction of the system has been completed, it is sold to retail providers, who then sell them to customers in packaged plans. There are websites that residents can use to find out if the iiNet NBN coverage is available in their area, all they have to do is put in their address or click on the area that they live in, and they will be able to find out if it is available, if it is still under construction, and when it will be available in their area.
People who live in remote locations won’t have broadband access for a while, but whenever this project is finally over, the government will try to provide broadband access to them through other technology like low orbiting satellites, which are cheap but very effective.