The NBN has several specific characteristics that will support Australia realising this ambition. In addition to the headline download speed of up to one gigabit a second, other characteristics that will assist Australia along the path are:

• Supports high-speed download and upload services. The NBN will provide homes and businesses with the capacity to support both high download and upload speeds, which are essential for applications such as high-definition videoconferencing and are not available on current broadband networks in Australia. The NBN’s capacity will enable households to simultaneously use a wider range of high-bandwidth applications without deterioration in service quality. It also means that small and medium-sized businesses, particularly those in regional Australia, will be able to access increasingly sophisticated business applications and greater data storage capacity via cloud computing that, in the past, have only been available to larger companies.

• Stability/reliability of service and capacity for future upgrades. Some applications, particularly health applications, rely on assured levels of stability/reliability of connection to a minimum level of internet speed and capacity.  It is for these reasons that many of these applications are currently only used between larger hospitals that already have access to high-speed broadband.  The NBN has the potential to extend a wider range of online health applications to the home and the local general practice surgery environment.

• Ubiquitous coverage: The NBN will be available to all Australians – no one will miss out. This will provide a sufficiently large customer base to justify development and deployment of advanced services and also maximises the potential network benefits for all customers. In Australia today there is a multiplicity of broadband access technologies such as HFC cable, ADSL, ADSL2+, fixed and mobile wireless and satellite each offering quite different characteristics. By introducing a minimum ubiquitous service of at least 12 megabits a second to all premises in Australia, the NBN will enable new and enhanced common service standards in healthcare, education and government service delivery.

• Uniform national wholesale pricing. The NBN will offer services at a uniform national wholesale price, which will give every community in rural and regional Australia the opportunity to get fairer access to affordable high-speed broadband. While retail pricing levels will be a matter for retail service providers that utilise the network, it is anticipated the level and range of retail prices will be comparable to existing prices in the market today, while providing a better service.

A network with these characteristics accessible to households and businesses throughout Australia provides a platform on which new services and applications, requiring these features, can be developed or can be deployed on a wider scale.

The characteristics of the NBN respond to likely trends in online engagement.