The federal opposition has promised to give 1.5 million homes and businesses access to higher speed internet if Labor wins the next federal election.

The $2.4 billion plan would expand full-fibre National Broadband Network (NBN) access across the country in all states and territories.

The package also includes a commitment to connect up to 660,000 premises in regional Australia to optical fibre.

While Labor is yet to detail specifically how it would pay for the expansion, the fact sheet the party has released says money will come from "a combination of Commonwealth loans, free cash flows and equity if determined appropriate".

"The optimal financing mix and capital structure will be determined in government," the fact sheet read.

NBN budgets 

In previous years, the NBN has gone over budget but the federal government has defended its overall handling of the project.

"The speeds available on NBN across all of the technologies are very much in line with the needs of the great majority of Australia," Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in 2020.

A key plank of Labor's plan is a commitment to give 90 per cent of those living in the 'fixed line footprint' — the areas served by fixed line internet such as Fibre to the Premises — access to "world class" gigabit speeds by 2025.

Currently, download speeds must be a minimum of 25 megabits per second, with an upload speed of 5Mbps during peak hours.

NBN to remain public if Labor wins

Labor has now promised that if it wins government the NBN would be kept as a public asset, and not sold off, in order to keep prices low.

The party has estimated 840,000 premises in the suburbs would benefit from the plan, along with the 660,000 regional premises.

"Our plan will give Australians who now rely on copper wire connections the choice of having fibre connected directly into their homes if they want a faster NBN speed than copper can deliver," Labor leader Anthony Albanese and Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.

Labor has estimated the spend will create 12,000 jobs in construction, engineering and project management across regional Australia and the suburbs.

The NBN was declared to be built and fully operational in December 2020.

In September this year, the federal government committed to upgrading the network under a $3.5 billion plan.

Under the expansion, Fibre To The Node, Fibre To The Curb and Hybrid Fibre Coaxial networks will all be upgraded, with millions of extra households to get higher speeds by 2023.

The government expects the plan to create 25,000 jobs in the next two years.

At the beginning of the year, almost one person a minute was asking the NBN for better internet speeds.