Most West Australians will be dudded under the NBN rollout, condemned to remain connected to the old copper network, according to figures released by the broadband network.

New figures show that, when the NBN rollout is complete, more than 60 per cent of WA premises will be tied to the old copper cables under each street for their broadband services.

NBN will run fibre to the “node” — the old Telstra boxes in each suburb — but ageing copper lines connect the final distance to homes and businesses.

Nationally, only 48 per cent of homes will rely on that slower technology, according to NBN’s corporate plans.

Answers to Senate estimates questions show WA is worse off than other States, with 39 per cent of NSW premises relying on the old technology, and just one-third of Victorians tied to copper.

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The technology is cheaper to use — about $2200 a house, rather than $2800 to run fibre to the kerb — but delivers lower speeds, on average.

Customers with fibre cable into the home can get download speeds of up to one gigabit a second, according to the NBN.

Householders on copper who live close to the old Telstra boxes could still get up to 100 megabits a second downloads, but maximum speeds drop sharply for customers more than a few hundred metres from the node.

And the news is worse for the 560,000 WA households yet to be connected. More than 70 per cent will have to rely on the remnants of the old copper network.

Fremantle MP Josh Wilson, deputy chairman of Federal Parliament’s joint standing committee on the NBN, said it was clear WA was again being left behind.

“You could understand it if we were only a little behind Victoria and other parts of the country — but 60 per cent of households being on this technology puts us in a whole different category,” he said.

“If we’re left with a second rate network, it will put us even further behind.”

A spokeswoman for NBN said its priority was to finish the network by 2020, with all premises able to access at least 25Mbps and 90 per cent of the fixed-broadband footprint able to access speeds of 50Mbps.

“Once we have completed the network build we expect to be generating annual revenues of around $5 billion,” she said.

“This will give us a solid revenue base from which to fund future network upgrades.”