NBN construction will take around a decade to complete
The company mandated by the Australian government to design, build and operate the country’s new National Broadband Network (NBN) is predicting that the multicast capabilities it is baking in will bring a “whole new world” of entertainment to the country.
Steve Langdon, Manager of Multicast, IPTV & Video Products for NBN Co states in a blog post that by streaming content into the NBN just once per serving area and then being able to replicate it out to potentially thousands of people watching it at once, end-users will be able to access high-quality video at more and more locations, making Australia a “fertile ground” for IPTV services.
Other named benefits of multicast technology include the ability to deliver synchronised second-screen content, provide more channels to more locations at higher quality (thanks to reserved bandwidth on the network), and facilitate viewer interactivity.
Mr. Langdon adds that the new network will also be able to adapt to support the TV resolutions of the future, including support for Quad HD (four times the current full-HD resolution) and Ultra HD TV (16 times higher).
The entire NBN construction project is valued at AU$ 38bn (US$ 39bn) and is expected to take around a decade to complete, with 93 per cent of Australian premises eventually receiving high-speed broadband via fibre optic cable, four per cent via fixed-wireless and the remaining three per cent by satellite.
