Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says the NBN will bring better services to rural areas. RESIDENTS in rural and remote areas will have access to broadband speeds quicker than their city cousins as the national broadband network (NBN) boosts services in the regions. Communications minister Stephen Conroy and the network's builder (NBN Co) will announce on Wednesday an improvement in the speeds available via fixed wireless and satellite technologies. Download and upload speeds on the fixed wireless network will double from 12 megabits per second (Mbps) download/1 Mbps upload to 25 Mbps download/5 Mbps upload. "This is a quantum leap for broadband services in the most remote areas of Australia," Senator Conroy told ABC radio on Wednesday. Customers on the permanent satellite network would have a similar jump in broadband speeds once NBN Co launched its two satellites in 2015. "A better service than (fixed copper line) ADSL2+ in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the metro centres," he said. Users on the interim satellite network currently have a capacity of 6 Mbps/1 Mbps. Under Labor's $37.4 billion NBN, fixed wireless and satellite services will provide high speed broadband to around seven per cent of Australians who live in rural and remote areas of the nation by 2015.