Northcote residents wait as NBN promises FTTP upgrades, zero premises eligible yet

Northcote is officially on the list for NBN Co's fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) upgrade program. But right now, zero premises, 0.0%, are eligible for the upgrade, according to the nbn-check.com.au service-area data.

The suburb's 7,060 premises still rely on Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) for broadband, with just 12.9% fibre coverage, per Pick NBN's analysis [source 1]. That means most homes and businesses are sharing bandwidth with their neighbours, which can drag evening download speeds down to 25 Mbps at peak times [source 2].

Why the wait matters

For a suburb that prides itself on a thriving café culture, live music venues like the Northcote Social Club on High Street, and an arts scene centred on the Northcote Town Hall and Regal Ballroom, reliable high-speed internet is no longer a luxury, it's infrastructure. The 2021 Census counted 9,379 households in Northcote, of which 86.0% had an internet connection [source 4]. That leaves roughly 1,313 households without any connection at all.

Retail providers including Kogan Internet, SkyMesh, and Telecube already offer NBN plans in Northcote, but all are capped at 250 Mbps because that's the ceiling for the current HFC network [source 5]. For small businesses, creatives uploading high-resolution work, or families streaming multiple feeds, that ceiling can feel like a bottleneck.

Bandwidth sharing and the speed gap

The HFC network delivers typical evening speeds ranging from 25 to 250 Mbps, but the variability is the problem. Unlike FTTP, which runs a dedicated fibre line to each premise, HFC is a shared loop. When too many neighbours jump online at 7 pm, whether for Netflix, Zoom, or gaming, everyone's connection suffers.

The FTTP upgrade would eliminate that contention. But NBN Co has not yet announced a timeline for activating Northcote's upgrade eligibility. The nbn-check.com.au data shows zero premises currently capable of ordering an FTTP service [source 3]. That leaves residents and businesses in a holding pattern, paying for plans that can't deliver what newer fibre suburbs already get.

For comparison, global cities investing heavily in fibre, like parts of London tracked by Ofcom or New Zealand's broadband map, have moved aggressively to FTTP. Northcote's 12.9% fibre coverage lags well behind the trajectory those networks set.

The next step is for NBN Co to begin rolling out eligibility in stages. Northcote residents can check their address on the nbn-check.com.au site to see if their home has been added to the FTTP list. If it hasn't, the fallback is to optimise the existing HFC connection: choose a retail plan with a strong peak-hour performance guarantee, upgrade the modem if it's older than two years, and hardwire high-demand devices where possible.

For now, the upgrade remains a promise on paper. The question is when, and how fast, NBN Co moves from announcement to activation.