NBN Technology Choice Program now offering free FTTP quotes

The initial plan for the NBN was to be a full fibre rollout to metropolitan areas, with a mix of Fixed Wireless NBN and satellite NBN for regional and rural areas. This would effectively mean that most Australian homes would be serviced by FTTP, which is a full fibre connection that not only allows for fantastic speeds today, including NBN Superfast (up to 250Mbps) and NBN Ultrafast download speeds (up to 1000Mbps), it offers speedy upgrade paths that may be offered in the future.

The NBN Technology Choice Program was offered as a way for those homes not serviced by FTTP to pay for a quote that then, if you went ahead with the upgrade, would usually cost a whole lot more to actually have the current technology converted to FTTP. These additional costs cover the actual build of switching your home to FTTP.

The fee for requesting a quote is no more. For the longest time, it cost $330 just to request a quote that may extend into the thousands of dollars. Today, for applicable premises, you can request a free online quote that’s available almost instantly but the quote is only valid for 24 hours.

Currently, you can get a free quote for a single premises, but there is still the option for a group switch (teaming up with neighbours) or making a case for an area switch (teaming up with your neighbourhood), but those latter two options aren’t as straightforward as getting an online quote for just your home.

Here are the five straightforward steps we followed to request a free NBN Technology Choice Program quote:

• Step 1: Visit the NBN Technology Choice Program website.
• Step 2: Select ‘Get a quote and apply’.
• Step 3: Input your address, name, and email address in the relevant fields. You may get a notification about your current technology type and potential alternative fibre upgrade options.
• Step 4: Read and tick the checkbox (if you’re authorised to receive a quote), then hit the ‘Generate quote’ button.
• Step 5: You should receive an email with a link to a quote that’s valid for 24 hours. Click on the ‘View your quote now’ link when you get the email to view your quote.

FTTP upgrade costs vary based on the complexity of the upgrade and how far away your home is from the nearest fibre connection. The popular Whirlpool forums have been tracking prices for years, which includes an updating spreadsheet of FTTP upgrade costs based on real-world quotes, which ranges from thousands of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, no matter how short the distance between your home and the nearest fibre connection.

The property we tested it with is a Fibre-to-the-Curb (FTTC) apartment, which has a fibre connection just outside of the apartment. We were quoted $9,898 (including GST) to shift from FTTC to FTTP. So, yeah, it ain’t cheap.