[Satellite TODAY 02-06-13] Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) will increase its speeds to more than double from 12Mbps down and 1Mbps up to 25Mbps down and 5Mbps, the country’s Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has announced.

   The increase is planned to take effect in 2015 and will serve the last seven percent of premises not covered by the NBN fiber rollout. However, fixed wireless service could have the increase as early as June this year. Satellite service will also have to wait until 2015.

   "What we’re able to confirm now following all the testing is that we’ll be deploying 25[Mbps] down and 5[Mbps] up for our fixed wireless network," Conroy said on a TV interview.

Currently, NBN Co has an interim satellite service in place that has a maximum of 6Mbps down speed. As of the end of 2012, NBN Co’s interim satellite service had a total of 23,100 users, while 1,000 users connect through the fixed-wireless long-term evolution portion of the network.