Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) company has amended its network design rules to reduce the number of premises able to connect to each fixed-wireless cell, as well as updating the maximum bandwidth capacity available.
The new Network Design Rules [PDF][1] -- first spotted[2] by Kenneth Tsang -- provided to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) at the end of June, will see maximum bandwidth move from 900Mbps to 4Gbps and maximum connected premises per sector be capped at 56.
"The planned maximum number of connected premises in a sector has typically been 110 premises but is now moving towards 56 premises in each sector, driving the need for additional sectors to support capacity demand (this may vary depending on the exact positions and radio conditions of the served premises)," the document says.
"The maximum bandwidth planned for the microwave hub site back to a FAN [fibre access node] site has been 900Mbps, but is now moving to 4Gbps to support capacity growth, allowing for the aggregation of up to eight eNodeBs [base stations], with a maximum of 2,640 end users."
The largest wireless serving areas will have up to 24 wireless serving area modules connected to a FAN, while the maximum number of end users in an access aggregation region is 25,000.
The changes follow criticisms about congestion on the fixed-wireless network, with CEO Bill Morrow last month telling the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network that the company is considering implementing a Fair Use policy[3] capping download allowances for "extreme" or "super" users.
"Our average consumption across the NBN network is just under 200 gigabytes per month, and when you look at the fixed-wireless network it's