One of four data ports on NBN Co equipment will be reserved exclusively for Government use, theoretically allowing health, education and other services to be delivered free and uninterrupted to homes.

Reports say Kate Cornick, NBN Co’s health and education market manager, revealed a glimpse of the plan at an IT and education conference in Sydney. A spokesperson for the company created to roll out the National Broadband Network said: “We have been talking for nearly two years about the long-term strategy to see one or more ports used for services such as health or education that could, for example, be provided either by the private sector or government." 

A reserved port would allow government or private services a range of expanded options over the normal NBN services. Multicasting for educational purposes is one example; Multicasting requires the facility to send a stream of video information to a point closer to users before it is divided between them – the process drastically reduces the amount of bandwidth needed.

Under the recently finalised plan, government agencies will be expected to purchase capacity – called Connectivity Virtual Circuits – directly from NBN Co rather than a retail provider, to avoid metering and download charges from ISPs.