NBN Co has made about five million homes on copper connections eligible to move across to full fibre. Its own figures record 430,000 upgrades completed in a single year, or roughly 36,000 a month. The rest of that queue is waiting on households to start the process themselves.
Two connection types account for most of the houses in question. Fibre to the Node runs fibre to a cabinet somewhere in the street and copper for the rest of the way. Fibre to the Curb stops at a pit outside the property and uses copper for the final few metres.
Both cap out at 100Mbps whatever plan you buy, and on copper the speed drops with distance from the cabinet. Full fibre carries wholesale download speeds of up to 2000Mbps. More than half the homes still waiting on the last stage of the program sit in regional Australia.
The upgrade starts with a plan order
NBN Co won't upgrade your house simply because you've asked it to. You place an order with a participating provider for a plan on one of NBN Co's higher wholesale speed tiers. The fibre work follows from there, and the estimate for regional addresses runs to about 24 business days.
Around 50 telcos take part, and the published list includes AGL Communications, Dodo, Origin and Tangerine. A technician runs the new fibre alongside your existing connection rather than replacing it on the spot. Someone over 18 has to be home, and renters need the landlord's permission.
The speed tier that qualifies you
Tier names stopped matching their speeds in September 2025, which catches out anyone comparing the old numbers. NBN Co accelerated its Home Fast wholesale product from 100/20Mbps to 500/50, and lifted Home Superfast from 250/25 to 750/50. Upload speeds on Home Ultrafast doubled to 100Mbps.
NBN Co doesn't publish one qualifying number, so the answer depends on your address and your provider. GoSwitch, a free Australian comparison service, lists internet plans from AGL, Dodo, Origin and other providers side by side. You can see which tiers each provider actually sells before you ring anybody.
Free comes with a few conditions
Free covers NBN Co's equipment and the installation work, not the plan itself. NBN Co classes some properties as too complex to include in the program, and providers may pass on extra costs of their own. Ask what applies at your address before you order.
What happens to the copper afterwards
The old connection doesn't disappear on installation day. A technician fits the fibre alongside it, and both run at once until somebody switches the copper service off. NBN Co gives providers at least 18 months notice before it retires a technology at an address.
That leaves one job on you. NBN Co recommends checking with your original provider that the old plan has been cancelled, since it stays active until somebody cancels it. Skip that step and the same address gets two bills.
Worth checking before the next bill
Almost every other fix for slow internet at home means buying a piece of equipment. A new router, or a mesh system that works around the copper instead of replacing it. The fibre upgrade changes the line itself.
Start with the address checker on NBN Co's website, which settles eligibility in one step. If it comes back yes, the only decision left is which plan to order. Comparing those through GoSwitch, a comparison service based in South Melbourne, is free and covers all four providers on the participating list.
