Tasmania was a priority area for the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN), and it is expected that increases in DEC will be realised through the NBN and private communications operators. DEC is projected to rise from $347 million in 2011 and $557 million in 2031. This 61 per cent rise is a faster rate of increase than the projected broader economic growth of 42 per cent over the period.
Tasmania has the lowest level of ADSL availability in Australia, and has more areas with poor access to quality broadband services than other states. Low broadband availability rates in Tasmania are driven by the distance from exchanges - 7.5 per cent of premises in Tasmania are more than five kilometres from the closest exchange, which means ADSL is not accessible for these premises.
In Tasmania, 84 per cent of premises have access to ADSL, 68 per cent have 3G mobile coverage, 36 per cent have 4G coverage, 10 per cent have access to fibre to the premises and four per cent have NBN Co fixed wireless services.489 There is no hybrid-fibre co-axial (HFC) or fibre to the node in the state.
For overall quality of fixed broadband service, while Tasmania has a relatively high share of premises that receive the highest level of service, only the NT has a larger share of premises that receive the lowest two categories of service. Around 70 per cent of premises in Tasmania can only access the lowest rated level of service.
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489. Department of Communications (2013)