NBN will start forcing fibre upgrades next year

Alex Choros - Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor

Last updated 23 April 2026

NBN customers in FTTN and FTTC areas will be forced to upgrade to FTTP to maintain an internet connection, with NBN Co looking to reduce reliance on the "legacy" copper network.

The network builder plans to start this process in July next year, according to a consultation closure paper seen by WhistleOut. It expects to kick off the "Targeted Upgrade" program with 130,000 premises in the first year, followed by a cadence of 20,000 premises per month. Locations selected for the Targeted Upgrade program will be based on complexity; areas where upgrading individual premises is more straightforward will be prioritised.

Customers in a targeted area will be given six months to organise the free upgrade to FTTP. While customers currently have to order an NBN 500 plan or faster to get a free FTTP upgrade, this requirement will be waived for those in the Targeted Upgrade program. For example, customers in the July 2027 batch will have until January 2028 to organise the upgrade.

NBN Co says impacted customers will be notified three times about the need to upgrade. This will happen at six months, three months, and one month out from the disconnection date. Customers who do not upgrade to FTTP within the six months will have their connection suspended. Requesting a fibre upgrade will resume connectivity. Customers who do not do this within 30 days will be disconnected entirely. These customers will need to order a new NBN service to get back online.

These mandatory upgrades are effectively designed to remove copper from the NBN. In addition to lower maximum speed potential, fibre copper is more expensive to repair and less resilient than fibre.

While over five million premises are already eligible for free upgrades to FTTP, just over one million of these had taken up the offer as of December last year. A further 622,000 FTTN premises will be able become eligible for an upgrade by 2030. 5% of these remaining premises may be upgraded to a different technology type, rather than FTTP.

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Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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