New data from the NBN reveals the social impact of reliable and fast internet
03:40 Share

We've seen a lot of data being released from NBN so far this year. There's some new research that shows the positive social impact that the high-speed NBN network has in Australia and the extent of these impacts includes improvement to health, employment, education, social and community connection and incomes as well. We are commercial partners of NBN. Jane McNamara is from NBN. Hello, Jane.

Good to be with you, Clinton. We all rely on internet data these days. And as I mentioned on the program yesterday, I've had NBN. I've been fortunate to have NBN in my area for years and it's been brilliant. But you've outlined some data today that shows the positive impacts that it's having.

Absolutely. And I think, you know, one of the things that we probably sometimes take for granted is, you know, that the NBN's there, that fast and reliable broadband allows us to do all of those great things that we love to do at home, at work, on our internet-connected devices. You know, we stream all of our shows. But one of the things that we probably don't realise is that social impact, the things that it actually enables us to do

over and above streaming and laptops and phones and computers and those sorts of things. And we really wanted to have a look at what is that impact? What kind of impact is fast and reliable broadband having? And we found that 76% of NBN users reported that having the NBN network at home had had a positive impact on their satisfaction with life.

and including those great call-outs in the factors of employment, education, health and wellbeing, social and community connection and sustainability. That must be really difficult to calculate, though, how positive impact is found. How do you go about that?

Yes, look, we did some research across the country and we really drilled down into key questions that help bring to life what people were actually using their NBN connection for and the benefit and the impacts that actually that delivered. So if we look at something like employment, for example, 78% of NBN users who worked from home or used job search platforms,

Potentially they're enabled to work from anywhere. So there might be working regionally, remotely, maybe they split their time between Metro and regional. Maybe they started a small business or a side hustle. That's 78% positive impacts because it has enabled that employment opportunity

And something like health and wellbeing, you know, 77% of NBN users talked about how having NBN allowed them to do things like telehealth appointments or access online medical information. And we often don't think of those impacts, but gosh, they make a difference.

How about this one, Jane? I was thinking just the other day about how many devices we've now got connected to the house, which is becoming next level when my fridge, for instance, is connected. I think I mentioned that to you previously. I was reading today that there's a Samsung vacuum cleaner that's being released overseas. It'll be here soon. It's a stick vacuum cleaner. It's the first stick vacuum cleaner that's connected because it has a built-in mobile phone and then it can connect to your home Wi-Fi NBN system. Your vacuum cleaner. Yeah.

It's amazing. The emerging technologies, yeah, and the convenience and the impact that that has. And we're used to the little round ones, aren't we, that kind of go along the floor. Yeah, we've got one of those ones. Yeah, the emerging technology isn't going to stop and those connected devices are going to continue to grow and grow. Good on you, Jane. Good to talk to you. You too. Jane McNamara, who's from the NBN and NBN are commercial partners of ours. But I