Mr. Menon, CEO of Australia’s specialist broadband device distributor PCRange, moved his home to Willunga in February this year in order to get early access to an NBN broadband service.

With SA's first connections from today in Willunga, NBNCo is starting a test process with a small number of residents before its trial is extended to about 100 Willunga premises over the next two months.

Mr. Menon said he was keen to be part of the NBN Willunga trial. "Broadband Internet access is the lifeblood of my business, so I intend to put the NBN through its paces," he said.

"Internode is providing me with an NBN connection that runs at 100 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream and 40 Mbps upstream. I'm using an AVM FRITZ!Box 7390 router which can handle that kind of throughput, so it’ll be interesting to see if I get close to those speeds on the local mirror. I’ll also test Voice over IP telephony services and multi-streaming video and run any other interesting tests."

"The NBN is a world-leading project, so it is very exciting to be involved with it right at the start."
Mr. Menon intends to report on his experiences with the test NBN service on his personal blog.

Internode managing director Simon Hackett said connecting up Mr. Menon as its first NBN customer in Willunga demonstrated its ongoing commitment to the NBN rollout. "Internode is determined to being first with the NBN in every new area that it rolls out," he said.

Internode is already actively involved with the NBN in both Tasmania and Armidale as a Retail Service Provider where it has connected up customers to the network. Internode’s NBN customers in Tasmania range from residential customers to businesses, schools and community organisations.

Willunga is one of five first release sites on mainland Australia selected by NBN Co. The other locations are west Armidale, in NSW (launched in April this year); part of Brunswick in Melbourne; parts of the Townsville suburbs of Aitkenvale and Mundingburra; and the coastal communities of Minnamurra and Kiama Downs, south of Wollongong in NSW.

These first release sites were selected to represent various situations the NBN will encounter during its network rollout. Ranging in geography, housing type and density, local infrastructure and other factors, these sites allow NBNCo to test different design and construction techniques in a range of situations.

More Information

• NBN on the Mainland (First Release)
• NBN in Tasmania