It’s hard to believe that today marks the first anniversary of Telstra connecting customers to the NBN.  Over the past year our local teams have seen first-hand how NBN can improve the lives of our customers.

For instance in Townsville, mother of three, Julie Boxsell, was one of the first to connect to Telstra services on the NBN. Now her family use the internet for everything from watching TV to streaming music and taking online courses.

In the town of Willunga, south of Adelaide, the Allbritt family of four has been connected to the NBN with Telstra for the past eight months. With Mr Allbrit about to start working in the mines the family plan to use video chat so the kids can see and talk to him each night. Mrs Allbritt says it will make the move easier for all of them knowing they can see each other almost instantly.

And, in St Helens, grandmother Frances Still, (recently returned to Tasmania from the UK) was inspired by her fast internet connection to try Facebook. She now uses the social network to keep in touch with her family and friends on the mainland.

These stories go to illustrate that the NBN is making it easier for our customers to connect with the people and things they love.

It’s also creating a new generation of ultra-connected youngsters – ‘Gen NBN’ we like to call them at Telstra – who won’t remember a world of DVD players, compact discs or the sound of dial-up.

Instead, these high-speed natives will know a world of high-speed broadband with numerous devices working at the same time. They’ll stream music and TV, embrace video chat and opt for touch screens over keyboards. It’s a pretty cool time to be growing up!

A year of being on the ground

Over the past 12 months Telstra has been on the ground as towns and suburbs around Australia were connected.

We’ve found that customers have a lot of questions so we’ve been making a point of offering advice the old fashioned way — face to face.

For instance, we’ve chatted to more than 5,000 locals at our Fibre Experience Centre – our travelling showcase of Telstra products operating live on the NBN. It has proved extremely popular and has clocked up more than 11,000 kilometres as it travelled to nearly-connected towns and cities.

Currently the Fibre Experience Centre is in Armidale (until tomorrow). In early March it’s off to Coffs Harbour (6-15 March) and then Toowoomba in Queensland (18-28 March).

If you’re in town we’d love to see you there.

Related Links

• Telstra Fibre Experience Centre lands in Tasmania
• Telstra launches services on the NBN in Tasmania
• Fibre in the city – Brunswick Telstra Fibre Experience Centre
• My afternoon with Stephen Conroy
• One giant leap for mankind….