Internet Service Provider Internode has further extended its optical fibre broadband rollout by offering the ultra-fast internet service at a new housing estate in Pakenham, an outer suburb of Melbourne.

Internode has already partnered with wholesale network operator OptiComm to provide new fibre-to-the-home broadband services at various locations in New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and Victoria, as well as with Telstra in Point Cook, Victoria and the NBN rollout in Tasmania. This new FTTH service has been laid out with the help of OPENetworks.

Located around 55km from the centre of Melbourne, residents of the newly constructed Delfin Lend Lease Lakeside housing estate in Pakenham will now be able to access broadband internet at either 25, 50, or a blazing fast 100mbps speed.

Having the new ultra-quick optical fibre broadband service, which is pretty much identical to that of the proposed National Broadband Network, is the icing on the cake for this burgeoning outer suburb community.

The Delfin Lend Lease development sits on over 31 hectares of open space with homes surrounding a 6.5-hectare lake in a waterfront style setting. When not surfing the web at breakneck speeds from inside their homes, there is a 17km walking and bike riding trail traversing through various landscaped parks, gardens, wetlands and reserves.

At the new Lakeside Pakenham estate customers will also be able to bundle their home phone together with Internode via their NodePhone Fibre telephony service. Both local and STD (national) calls are charged at just 18 cents, and are untimed. International call rates are also very competitive, similar to rates now only available with VoIP services.

Internode product manager Jim Kellett believes partnering up with multiple wholesale providers will help to offer the best possible FTTH service to their customers.

Mr Kellett said: "By working with network operators on a range of platforms, we’re developing a deep understanding of what's needed to make FTTH services really hum … our partnership with OPENetworks is about extending that expertise."

Internode FTTH broadband contracts start from $49.95 a month (plus setup fees) for a 25Mbps connection, which is faster than any current ADSL2+ broadband service in Australia. This entry-level plan comes with 15GB of monthly download quota.

To see how much Internode are charging for their Tasmanian NBN optical fibre rollout, please read our related article, Australians want broadband priced by both speed and data. Currently most of Internode’s plans look to be the best for Tasmanian NBN customers, except for the lowest speed and smallest data limit, where Exetel ranks number one.