Partnering with housing estate telecoms specialist Opticomm, Internode is providing customers with Fibre to the Home (FTTH) broadband services, running at 25, 50 or 100 megabits per second (Mbit/s).

Internode's first Home Fibre services were connected in February this year at the Fernbrooke community, a development at Redbank Plains, 32 kilometres south-west of the Brisbane CBD. Fernbrooke comprises more than 1000 homes built around 20 hectares of recreational space and parkland. During the past six months, Internode has launched Fibre to the Home services at:

• Lochiel Park, an ecologically sustainable development by the River Torrens in Adelaide.
• Alamanda, Point Cook's premier lifestyle community in Victoria.
• University Hill, a $1 billion integrated residential and business development in Melbourne.

In the near future, Internode will also deliver Home Fibre at Lightsview, a premium lifestyle development in Adelaide's Northgate area, and Parkbridge, a master-planned community in Middleton Grange, NSW.

Internode Carrier Relations Manager John Lindsay said the take-up rate of Internode Home Fibre services was in line with those of ADSL2+ services. "Young families with working parents aren't the driver for high-bandwidth broadband, but presumably their children will grow into it," he said.

"Generally residents of Internode FTTH developments receive an initial service as part of their house and land package. The service is very popular and our subscriber count is growing at more than 10 per cent per month. The most popular aspect of the service is that it is priced from less than $50 per month which is much cheaper than Telstra FTTH in new estates."

Internode's most popular Home Fibre services run at 25 Mbit/s, with prices starting at less than $50 a month. Although this price point is comparable with ADSL2+ services, Internode Home Fibre provides a downstream speed of 25 Mbit/s - faster than the highest-performance ADSL2+ services.

Internode is delivering its Home Fibre broadband services over the Opticomm network. Opticomm, a Hills Industries joint venture company, specialises in providing FTTH networks for new housing estates.

With their broadband service, Internode Home Fibre subscribers receive access to a telephone service that provides a conventional 'dial tone' voice service to each subscribing household, directly from the Opticomm termination unit in the home. Internode also provides a large amount of unmetered content for its customers, including ABC iView and TiVo downloads.

Internode Home Fibre plans cost from $49.95 a month for a service with a 25 Mbit/s downstream speed and a five gigabyte (GB) download quota. Home Fibre services are also available at 50 Mbit/s and 100 Mbit/s downstream speeds. With Internode Home Fibre services, the quoted downstream speed is actually delivered to the home's Ethernet port, unlike the "best effort" speeds provided by traditional ADSL2+ services.

View more information about Internode Home Fibre services.