THE national broadband network will enable speeds of one gigabit per second on its fibre-optic network, 100 times faster than originally planned, the company building the network will announce today.

The speed is also almost 100 times greater than the 12 megabits a second the Coalition promised as a minimum in its broadband policy, and highlights the growing gap between what a fibre-based broadband network can offer and existing technology.

The opposition has pledged to scrap NBN Co if elected.

One gigabit per second is 17,500 times faster than dial-up broadband and 167 times faster than the average ADSL broadband connection.

Increasing the speed would not add to the $43 billion construction price tag and the fibre could be upgraded to provide even faster speeds, NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley said.