The National Broadband Network rolled out Thursday in Townsville, the first location in Queensland to gain access to the high-speed broadband service.

Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan officially switched on the first fibre-based community in Queensland today at a ceremony at The Cathedral School in the Townsville suburb of Mundingburra.

The Townsville rollout of the fibre optic broadband service covers an area encompassing 3,100 premises in the city’s western suburbs, of which 1,950 (or 63 per cent) consented to the connection of a line during construction to make their premises “NBN-ready.”

So far more than 110 homes, businesses and institutions in Townsville are connected to the network as part of a nationwide trial to test preparedness, with more connections in the queue.

The trial phase will continue until October, after which those located in the fibre coverage area will be able to order commercial high speed broadband and telephony services provided over the NBN from their chosen participating retail service provider.

All Australian residential and business premises are planned to be given access to the NBN as the old copper and HFC cable-based telecommunications networks are progressively decommissioned over the next decade.

Additionally, NBN Co announced Thursday it had exceeded its target of attracting 400 homes and businesses on mainland Australia to the NBN trials, set out in its Corporate Plan of December 2010.

A small business, Mundingburra News and Casket Agency, was unveiled at today’s launch event as the 500th mainland NBN trialist. The newsagent is a customer of local Internet service provider Internet Solutions (who has purchased its access to the NBN via NBN Co customer and wholesaler Nextgen Networks) and is using its NBN connection to offer its patrons a free wi-fi connection.

An estimated 1,690 premises are now receiving services over the NBN via the mainland fibre trials in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, the first release sites in Tasmania and the company’s interim satellite service, which is aimed at remote parts of the country.