Cooper Ritchie has been in contact with people from the NBN since winning the Sky Muster II ‘Blast Your Face’ competition.

The huge spacecraft is set to orbit 36,000km above Earth and is designed to provide improved internet access to Australians in rural areas, but for those wanting to connect to the NBN’s fixed wireless service and not the satellite may have a while to wait. 

“People have asked me to hound them about getting the NBN down here soon but they won’t tell me much so I think it is still a couple of years away,” Cooper said. 

The 16-year-old Eden High student was informed that he was chosen because of his impressive response to how the NBN would benefit me. 

“I’m starting my HSC next year and sometimes when I’m at home I can’t even load a webpage so if we could access the NBN it would make a huge difference,” he said. 

Before the 2013 election the Liberal Party promised all Bega Valley premises would have access to download speeds of 25megabits per second (mbps) to 100mbps by the end of this year.

However, NBN spokesperson Marcela Balart said the company expects all “locals will be able to connect from early 2018”.

​”Construction to connect an additional 12,000 premises in parts of Bega, Tathra, Eden, Merimbula, Pambula and Tura Beach through NBN’s fixed line service is due to commence early next year,” she said.

“What we’re hearing is NBN services are providing a significant difference to people’s broadband experiences, with some accessing speeds of up to 50Mbps download and 20Mbps upload on the fixed wireless service.”

Despite the delays, former member for Eden-Monaro Peter Hendy said the expected cost of the infrastructure project in the region was “between $90-100million”.

According to delivery network provider Akamai, Australia’s average internet speed of 8.8mbps ranks it 8th in the Asia Pacific, behind South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and New Zealand.