NBN fibre to the premises (FTTP) and the fibre upgrade, explained

What is fibre to the premises (FTTP)?

Fibre to the premises (FTTP) is the type of NBN where fibre optic cable runs the whole way from the network to a box inside your home or business. There is no old phone line and no pay TV cable anywhere in the path.

That is what makes it the best NBN connection. It takes the fastest plans NBN sells, and the things that trouble the copper types, such as distance, rain, heat and old phone sockets, do not affect it.

If you are moving to it, NBN’s installer connects the fibre and the cabling after the inside box is left to you. That part, before the install or after it, is what our FTTP upgrade cabling service covers.

How FTTP compares with the older connections

Fibre to the premises beside the copper connections it replaces

Compared on	Fibre to the node or curb	Fibre to the premises
What reaches your home	The old copper phone line	Fibre
Fastest plans	Not available	Available
Distance from the street equipment	Slows the line	Makes no difference
Rain and heat	Can cause dropouts	No effect on the fibre
Old phone sockets in the house	Can cause dropouts and lost speed	Not used at all
Where the modem is	Yours, on a phone socket	NBN's box on the wall. You add a router

There is more on the copper types in what fibre to the node is and what fibre to the curb is, and all the types side by side in which NBN connection is best. On fibre, the NBN usually beats 5G home internet and Starlink for speed and steadiness. The faults move too: on copper the fault was usually somewhere along the old pair, and on fibre it is the box on the wall, the port or the lead-in from the street, which is what eleven years of our own enquiries show.

The fibre upgrade: how to check and get started

NBN has been replacing its copper connections with fibre, and many homes on fibre to the node and fibre to the curb can now move to fibre to the premises. Two dated changes matter here. Since 1 July 2026, a fibre to the curb home no longer has to order a high-speed plan to get the upgrade (NBN’s statement (opens in a new tab)). And in September 2025 NBN started the final stage of its fibre to the node upgrades, which it said would reach more than 95% of the roughly 622,000 premises still on that connection (NBN’s statement of 5 September 2025 (opens in a new tab)).

1. 1

   Check your address

   Put your address into the checker on NBN's website. It tells you what you have now and whether the upgrade is available.

2. 2

   Order a plan

   The upgrade is triggered by ordering a plan through a provider. On fibre to the curb, any speed plan qualifies since 1 July 2026. On fibre to the node, ask your provider which plans qualify. Any charge is NBN's and the provider's to state, so confirm it with them before you order.

3. 3

   Book the appointment

   Your provider books NBN's installer. Someone over eighteen has to be home.

4. 4

   Install day

   The installer replaces the copper lead-in with fibre, fits a box outside and a box inside, and connects the service.

5. 5

   Plug in your router

   Your router connects to the inside box with a network cable. The old phone sockets are no longer part of your internet.

The checker is at nbnco.com.au (opens in a new tab). We do not sell plans or rank providers, and we have no say in eligibility. If the router you have is old, what to look for in a router for the NBN covers the port it needs to plug into the inside box.

The two NBN boxes

A fibre to the premises connection has two boxes.

• The outside box. Fixed to an outside wall, usually near where the old phone line came in. The fibre from the street ends here.
• The inside box. Fixed to a wall inside, with a power supply. This is NBN’s connection device, sometimes called the NTD, and it is the modem for your service. Your router plugs into it.

A thin fibre lead runs between the two, through the wall. Since September 2025 NBN has been fitting a smaller inside box with four lights across the front; what its lights mean is in the fibre box lights, from September 2025.

The upgrade, through the wall

Show the house

Before After

123123456

1. 1Copper lead-in
2. 2Old phone sockets, on one cable
3. 3Your modem
4. 1Fibre lead-in
5. 2Outside box
6. 3Inside box
7. 4Your router
8. 5No longer part of your internet
9. 6You choose where the inside box goes

Where NBN puts them

The outside box goes where the lead-in comes up. The inside box goes where the shortest, simplest path from the outside box lands. In a lot of homes that is the garage, or a front bedroom.

That is the catch with the upgrade. The installer’s job is to connect the service by a straightforward path. Whether that spot suits your router and your WiFi is not the question they are there to answer. Some installers will put the inside box exactly where you ask. Some will not. It depends who turns up.

Your cabling responsibility

NBN’s part ends at the inside box. Everything after it is yours: the cable from the box to wherever the router should sit, and any cabling on to other rooms.

If the box lands in the garage and the router needs to be in the middle of the house, there are two ways to deal with it.

• Before the install. Decide where you want the inside box, and have a conduit with a draw wire run from where the outside box will go to that spot. On the day, the installer pulls the fibre through and fits the box where you chose. This is the neater result, and it means one visit.
• After the install. Leave the box where it landed and run a data cable from it to the place the router should be. Or have the box moved, which is a job in its own right: see NBN box relocation.

To get a feel for what the cabling costs before you ask for a quote, our data cabling cost estimator works it out from a few questions.

For the whole upgrade, the pipe from the street, the box position and the cabling together, price your own upgrade bill.

Choosing the box position before the install

In this video, the customer wanted the inside box in a particular place, and had the pathway put in before NBN’s installer arrived.

Watch: NBN FTTP Free Fibre Upgrade | Relocating NBN Box Or Router From Garage To Inside House With Conduit

What to do before your own appointment:

• Pick the spot. Central, out in the open, near a power point, and where a router can live. Not a cupboard at the far end of the house.
• Mark it. An X on the wall, and the request in writing to your provider before the day.
• Make it the easy path. A conduit with a draw wire from the outside box position to your X. That is pre-wiring for the NBN box, done before the installer’s visit.
• Think about the phone. The copper line is switched off with the upgrade. A home phone then runs through the router, and the old wall sockets can be re-connected to it so the handsets stay where they are.

To work out the spot for your own house, use the install day planner. It checks the spot against NBN’s rules and prints a page to hand the installer.

How we can help

We do the cabling on your side. We do not touch NBN’s network, and the fibre itself is theirs to install.

• Before the install: the conduit and draw wire to the position you want, so the installer can finish in one visit.
• When the installer could not finish: the pathway they needed, so your provider can book the return visit. That is usually a lead-in conduit laid to NBN’s guide, or a lead-in built on your property, ready for NBN to connect.
• After the install: a data cable from the inside box to the router’s position, cabling to the rooms that need it, or moving the box.

This work is quoted, usually from photos. The details are on our FTTP upgrade page. If the house needs more than one cable, see how to set up a wired network at home.