Much has been written and debated about the government's $43 billion fibre network, but by July next year, the first users will be able to decide for themselves whether the super fast network is really worth the money.
Around 5,000 homes in regional Tasmania will be the first to connect to the network, with the government announcing stage one of the rollout to be complete by the seoncd quarter of 2010.
The government has issued a glowing press release, which describes the network as "the most important infrastructure revolution since the distribution of electricity a century ago."
A total of 200,000 homes and business will be connected to the NBN over a five year time frame. The first towns to be connected will be Scottsdale, Smithton, and Midway Point.
Residential 100Mbps Internet is relatively rare in Australia compared with countries like South Korea, but it does exist. Internode offers 100Mbps fibre to residents of Fernlake in Queensland, while Telstra is upgrading cable Internet services in Melbourne to 100Mbps.