G.fast is a high-speed broadband service available across Canberra. It runs on the Vision Network, which is a completely separate network from the NBN.
Most Canberrans will know the Vision Network better by its old name, TransACT, which has been part of the city's telecommunications fabric since the late 1990s. The network has changed hands over the years and now operates as the Vision Network, with G.fast as the technology delivering very fast speeds to homes and businesses.
G.fast uses a mix of fibre and the existing copper telephone line that already runs into your home. The fibre comes from a small node located in a pit close to your property, usually within a few hundred metres, and the short copper run from there to your home carries the signal the rest of the way. Because the copper distance is so short, G.fast reaches speeds that traditional copper broadband simply cannot.
Across all our Canberra G.fast customers, the average download speed is around 694 Mbps and the average upload is around 90 Mbps. Customers within about 100 metres of a node often see near-gigabit speeds. Customers further away still see strong performance, with most connections comfortably above 250 Mbps.
The shorter your copper line, the faster your connection. Before you sign up we can check your specific address and give you a realistic speed estimate.
The most important difference is that G.fast and the NBN are two completely separate networks. The NBN is the national network owned and operated by NBN Co. G.fast runs on the Vision Network, which is locally operated here in Canberra.
For many Canberra homes, particularly those where the NBN reaches the property over copper from a street cabinet, G.fast is significantly faster. Those NBN connections are usually capped at around 100 Mbps. G.fast in the same kind of street typically delivers several times that.
If you already have NBN fibre directly to your home, the available speeds on the two networks are more closely matched. In that case the choice usually comes down to plan inclusions, pricing, and your preferred provider rather than raw speed.
G.fast on the Vision Network is available across many Canberra suburbs, and coverage continues to grow as Vision Network rolls out additional nodes. Whether G.fast is available at your address depends on how close you are to the nearest Vision Network node. The easiest way to find out is to check your address on our Vision Broadband page or contact our support team, and we will check it for you.
If you would like to know whether G.fast is right for you, or you want a comparison against your current connection, contact our support team. We can check your address, give you a realistic speed estimate, and help you decide.