It’s looking like Tasmania could become the first state to be totally connected to the National Broadband network, with reports indicating it could be done by July 2018.

On Saturday, it was revealed the NBN had been made available to over half of all households and businesses in Hobart, reported Business Insider Australia.

That means 28,000 premises are already connected to the wireless network and the state aim to have 83,000 premises using the NBN in the future.

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“The rollout of the NBN is now accelerating here in Tasmania and nationally,” parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher told ABC.

“It’s an enormous benefit for homes, but it’s also an enormous benefit for businesses.”

In New South Wales, 95,000 homes and business to the high-speed network. Plans are to add another 20,000 homes to the network across western Sydney.

The managing director of Hobart IT company ISW, Ian Warner, said the NBN had dramatically improved the operation of his business.

“In years gone by, we’ve had to strategically place ourselves in the same premises as a telco in order to keep our costs competitive because bandwidth is essential, [but] when we knew that the NBN was coming it enabled us to relocate,” he said.

“Now we run teleconferences and web conferences, we sell software all over the world, we’ve been able to build our business from Tassie.

“Last year we had a record – we grew our export revenue by 30 per cent, to over $1 million.”

– with ABC