LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: After a decade of big promises and sizeable stumbles, Australia's National Broadband Network is nearly complete.

Three-quarters of the country's premises can now ask to join the NBN, but as a federal election approaches, there is still a lot of disagreement in the community about whether the NBN is a game changer or an overcommitment to old technologies.

Geoff Thompson reports.

GEOFF THOMPSON, REPORTER: Wealthy businessmen, Ray Shaw, moved to the New South Wales Central Coast believing the great NBN dream of getting super-fast broadband just about anywhere in Australia.

RAY SHAW, THE GADGET GUY: Our first preference was NBN. We couldn't look anywhere that there wasn't a decent NBN connection because I want to work remotely and of course, the water and everything else all added to it.

We chose this place because the node, fibre to the node was right outside our door.

This is the famous node. This is where the fibre goes to, fibre to the node.

GEOFF THOMPSON: So the fibre comes in here and then it is copper to your house?

RAY SHAW: Correct.

GEOFF THOMPSON: You should have a good connection.

RAY SHAW: I should have a perfect connection.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Fibre to the node is the way the greatest proportion of Australians, about 36 per cent of us, will be connected to the NBN.

As managing editor of one of the largest technology review sites in the country, Ray Shaw wanted the fastest connection he could get.

RAY SHAW: I'm paying the all-you-can-eat bundle, the $99 a month plus the speed override for unlimited data.

GEOFF THOMPSON: For a while, Ray got the top speeds he pays for, but now gets drop-outs every day.

RAY SHAW: Anything in white means it is meeting the Telstra NBN service level agreement.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Ray has kept minute-by-minute logs of his NBN's performance.

RAY SHAW: The yellow means I can't work. There is awful lot of yellow.

The green means it is okay to work. The blue means download speeds are below what they should be and the red means it has dropped out probably ten or 15 minutes where the drop-out there.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Where you didn't have any internet?

RAY SHAW: Any internet whatsoever.

GEOFF THOMPSON: What does that mean for your business?

RAY SHAW: What it means is I can't work. I'm losing hours of work.

GEOFF THOMPSON: When the NBN is complete next year, it is estimated that fewer than one in four fibre to the node connections will be capable of getting the top speeds currently offered on the NBN.

This entrenches a digital divide in Australia, but it is not the one the Coalition is focused on.

MITCH FIFIELD, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: The real digital divide is between those who have the NBN and those who don't have the NBN which is why we wanted to complete the NBN as soon as we could.

Under us, everyone will have fast broadband by 2020.

Ninety per cent of the people on the fixed line network, the fixed line footprint will be able to get speeds of 50 megabits per second or more; 75 per cent of people will be able to get speeds of 100 megabits per second.

You only need five megabits per second to watch high-definition Netflix.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The amount of data Australians are consuming increases by 20 to 30 per cent each year.

Last year, the average home had 17 devices connected to the internet and that number is predicted to more than double in the next three years.

KEN BISLAND: Constantly in use - videos, YouTube, - it's, wherever you go, there is, unfortunately, an iPad being used.

NADINE SHARPLES: And then the kids are constantly flicking on Netflix.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Nadine Sharples, Ken Bisland and their three young boys share a Melbourne home connected to the NBN via the cables used to deliver pay-tv.

Hybrid Fibre Coaxial, or HFC, is the second most common NBN technology - connecting 22 per cent of us.

NADINE SHARPLES: When we got first connected, we had a few teething problems, but things seem to have really settled down and it has been much better, certainly compared to what we had before.

GEOFF THOMPSON: At the other end of the NBN consumer spectrum are those who want the most basic service - just to have a home phone and send an email or two.

The NBN is pushing the cost of that up says the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

ROD SIMS, ACCC CHAIRMAN: It is really unfair if you're forced to change and you're happy with what you had and you are forced to pay more. That's just unfair.

GEOFF THOMPSON: But testing by the ACCC also suggests that about 90 per cent of NBN users with fixed line connections are getting close to the speeds they are paying for.

ROD SIMS: Most Australians are better off with the NBN.

Sometimes there is problems with fibre to the node, particularly within home wiring issues and we hear a lot from those people which is fair enough, but no, the majority of people are better off on the NBN.

MICHELLE ROWLAND, SHADOW COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER: I would say if you went around Australia and you asked a group of people, anywhere, about their NBN experiences, I think it is fairly certain for every 10 people you wouldn't have nine saying that it is satisfactory.

MITCH FIFIELD: Look, the NBN is fit for purpose. It is designed to meet the needs that people have.

It is doing that and it is something that will be continually upgraded to make sure that it keeps pace with needs as they evolve.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The Labor Party's original vision was for a mostly fibre to the premises NBN, but instead of promising a quick fix, it is offering to help fix home wiring issues which can affect the NBN's performance.

MICHELLE ROWLAND: Labor is taking a very responsible approach.

We have made it very clear that there is no quick fix to six years of vandalism by this government and we will be informed, as we always said, by the realities on the ground.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Houses in the suburb of Chermside in north Brisbane are among the lucky 17 per cent which won the NBN lottery and got fibre to the premises.

Another 12 per cent are getting fibre to just outside their house known as fibre to the kerb but fibre into this home is why video producer, Gary Schweikert moved here.

GARY SCHWEIKERT, BIG HAT PICTURES: When we relocated out of Sydney, I literally looked at the NBN rollout map to see where the NBN was and there was just one area at the time, that was it.

On the day that we moved in, was the day I had the NBN connected.

I've just started a file transfer of the finished edit for you to review. You get about 100 megabits per second download, don't you

CLIENT: Yeah, yeah, we've got fibre at the premises, all good.

GEOFF THOMPSON: With a garage as his studio and an edit suite inside, Gary can push huge video files around the world with ease.

CLIENT: Yup, 20 seconds to go.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Gary consistently gets the top speeds he pays for.

GARY SCHWEIKERT: It certainly beats the days of snail mail.

Since day one in 2013 when we had it installed, we have not had a problem, not one day.

There hasn't been a day that we've had an outage, slow speed or anything like that.

So, the NBN fibre to the premises here has been absolutely rock solid.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The first Labor appointed CEO of the NBN, Mike Quigley, stood down under the Coalition Government.

He argues that if Labor's fibre to the premises, or FTTP plan, had been continued, it too would almost be complete.

MIKE QUIGLEY, FORMER CEO NBN CO: I'd say where we would be, if it had continued, is we would have the $45 billion cost instead of $51 billion that we have got to date.

It would have taken a little longer. I don't dispute that. It certainly wouldn't have taken six to eight years longer.

MITCH FIFIELD: Well, what we have done under this government is what the rest of the world does and that is use a range of technologies to see fast broadband rolled out fastest and at lowest cost.

By taking this approach, the NBN will be completed by 2020 which is six to eight years sooner than otherwise would have been the case and at $30 billion less cost.

MIKE QUIGLEY: That is completely wrong.

Those numbers are based on not a continuation of the FTTP program, but a restart again after billions had been spent - that's where the six to eight years and $30 billion more comes from.

MITCH FIFIELD: You only get the full national benefit of fast broadband when everyone has it.

Under us, they will have it sooner.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The NBN is almost done, but Australians experience of it varies - depending on your needs, where you live, and the technology connecting you to it.

MIKE QUIGLEY: It will be completed by mid-2020. So, we're just about there.

Where do we need to be? We need to have a fully fibre network as we all need. That is the long-term right answer.

That is going to take billions of dollars to build, but it is, it will be necessary because people's demands will increase.