Prime Minister Julia Gillard has switched on the high speed fibre-optic national broadband network in the first metropolitan area in Australia - the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick.
Ms Gillard was joined by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy at the Brunswick Town Hall where they hit the button to turn on the national broadband service (NBN).
More than 700 homes and businesses across Australia are now connected to the NBN as part of the trial. It is already up and running in Kiama and Armidale in NSW and the Tasmanian communities of Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point.
Ms Gillard said while there were "fearful voices" against the NBN, their concerns were unwarranted. "Australia needs the NBN and they will get it. In our regions and now in our cities," she said.
"The journey has begun and there's no going back. We will get this big thing, here in Brunswick and right across the nation."
Brunswick, in Melbourne's inner north, is also the first Victorian area to be connected to the NBN.
It will initially be switched on to 14 customers from Thursday and this will be gradually widened.
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