The National Broadband Network is being taken up with a gusto in regional areas, with the NSW South Coast town of Kiama and the South Australian town of Willunga named the first two communities to record an uptake of over 50 per cent of eligible homes and businesses.

Shaking off a troubling few weeks, the NBN Co announced that adoption of the service in newer rollout sites is ‘showing an even more accelerated trajectory’.

New data shows that where the service has been available for over 12 months, over a third of eligible premises have taken up a service.

In those communities where the fibre network has been rolled out:

  • The average take-up rate in locations where the network has been operating for more than 12 months is 34.4%
  • The communities with the highest fibre take-up as a percentage of premises passed are Kiama, NSW, and Willunga, South Australia, with more than 50% of all eligible premises using the NBN
  • Average take-up across sites that have been operating for more than 6 months is already 28% of premises passed
  • NBN fibre households are uploading and downloading more than double the Australian average for bandwidth (50Gb down/18Gb up (for NBN Co fibre) v. 23Gb down/estimated 2-to-4 Gb up (for fixed broadband)*

NBN Co's Head of Product & Sales, John Simon, said the adoption rates demonstrated a strong appetite for the NBN.

"Australians clearly want better broadband. When the NBN becomes available in an area it's in very high demand.

"Just as importantly, services over the NBN fibre network are available from a wide variety of retail providers at a price less than consumers might think."

According to Mr Simon, the speed at which the NBN is being taken up is superior when compared to other internet technologies.

For instance, it took four years to achieve a 13% take-up rate over dial-up; six years to reach 28% take-up of ADSL; and 15 years to get to a 34% take-up of HFC.