Plugged in: Getting our network ready for even higher speeds

The barriers to a quality online experience are falling as Australia's internet infrastructure improves, thanks to the widespread adoption of high-speed technologies, like fibre.

Now, the challenge for many Australians lies in whether their household devices can keep up with the faster speeds the network offers. A lot has changed between now and 2008 to make our network what it is in 2025.

Laying the Groundwork: Smarter CVC Management

Upgrading our Connectivity Virtual Circuits (CVCs) marked one of the earliest major leaps forward. If you’ve read about our network team’s love-hate relationship with Fortnite updates, you’ll know that CVCs used to be a key bandwidth barrier.

CVCs defined how much bandwidth providers could use in an area. If a provider didn’t buy enough bandwidth, connections could be congested at peak times. This was best demonstrated by the spike in internet use during the 2020 COVID-19 restrictions.

To mitigate this, we created a CVC-bot in 2018: a smart system that monitored usage and automatically upgraded our CVC capacity when and where it was needed. We also publicly released our CVC graphs so customers could (and still can) check their local Point of Interconnect (POI)’s capacity in real-time.  

In 2023, NBN scrapped CVC charges for 100Mbps+ plans, allowing providers to offer unlimited capacity to higher-speed customers. We had long advocated for NBN to remove these artificial constraints so all customers can access the full potential of the network.

Enter CVC Max: A New Standard

Since then, NBN's highest CVC tier, CVC Max, removed the fixed bandwidth cap on all CVCs. Instead, our NNIs (Network-to-Network Interfaces) now determine our capacity. NNIs act as the gateways between NBN and Aussie networks at POIs around Australia. To make the most of this, we’ve been proactively scaling up our NNIs.

NBN offers NNI link capacities from 100Mbps to 100Gbps, but our smallest links start at 10Gbps. Today, 8 of our busiest POIs already use 100G NNIs, and we’re upgrading more in the next financial year.

Our long-term goal is to bring all 121 POIs up to 100Gbps. It’s a significant investment, and not every POI needs that capacity just yet. But, with these upgrades, we have a network that’s ready for the high-speed upgrades in September and future demands.

Looking Ahead

We’re entering a new stage of network performance. In the post-CVC era, with higher speeds becoming available to more Australians, the next obstacles in front of high performance are devices in the home.

Wi-Fi technology generations over time

Some older routers, cabling, or devices may not have the capacity to utilise the increased bandwidth. Traditionally, Wi-Fi technologies have trailed behind wired connections in both speed and reliability. As Wi-Fi becomes the popular form of connection, Wi-Fi optimisation has evolved into one of the largest barriers to speed. The challenge extends past just routers, ensuring that devices like phones, PC, or Smart TVs have the Wi-Fi cards or high-speed ports necessary is just as important.

Most people and devices can still benefit from high-speed tiers, but it’s worth checking that your home network is up to the task, and if someone you know could use a hand, our High-speed Hub has plenty of helpful tips as well as high-speed updates.

As we continue to push the limits of what the network can deliver, making sure your home setup can keep up is the final piece of the high-speed puzzle.

Tags:PRONetwork InfrastructureNBN Speed Upgrade