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Confusion after Australia changes FTTH plans

The new Australian coalition government is planning to change the development of the country's national broadband network, from a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network to a fibre-to-node network.

The new plan, pledged by the newly elected government, will use copper cables from the national network provider Telstra's to connect households to the fibre network.

While the proposal is likely to save billions of dollars, it will scupper plans to deliver a 1Gbps service to the majority of the population; now, only 20 per cent of the country is likely to have a connection capable of such speeds.

However, there is confusion over progress made by the country's National Broadband Network (NBN), which had originally pledged that a 1Gbps service would be available by the end of 2013. There are rumours that the project has been delayed, and the NBN now says it is 'awaiting advice' from the government over its next steps, according to The Australian newspaper.

To further confuse matters a petition set up by a Queensland student, demanding that the  government goes ahead with the original FTTH plan, is said to have attracted around 150,000 signatures in the three days since the coalition was voted in.

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