Aussie Broadband welcomes new nbn™ pricing but raises concerns about Fixed Wireless customers
Media Release | Monday 18 Dec 2017 | 1 min read
Last week (14/12/17) nbn™ released their planned changes to the wholesale pricing structure for feedback from the industry.
Phillip Britt, Managing Director of Aussie Broadband, has welcomed the review but has significant concerns regarding some elements.
“Aussie Broadband has been advocating for nbn™ to review its current pricing structure for some time due to the extremely high cost of CVC, which discourages providers from supplying high quality nbn™ products.”
“In particular, Aussie Broadband welcomes the concept of wholesale bundled offers which includes a certain amount of CVC per user at a lower cost than the current pricing, as well as lowering the price of additional bandwidth for these bundled products.”
“We believe these elements will assist in encouraging providers to provision adequate CVC to customers, as well as levelling the playing field between large and small RSPs.”
This being said, Phil has significant concerns about parts of the latest proposal, particularly for customers using the nbn™ fixed wireless network.
According to nbn™ these connections will be excluded from the temporary pricing offer available from December, as well as the permanent pricing structure available from next year.
This marks a departure from the current model where all access types follow identical pricing (with the exception of satellite).
“Aussie Broadband believes fixed wireless has been specifically excluded from the new pricing structure due to prolonged tower congestion in some areas of the nbn™ fixed wireless network, which would negate any increases in speed that would be offered by the new pricing.
As a result, rural and regional Australians in nbn™ fixed wireless areas will most likely be paying more for a lower-quality service when compared to their city counterparts.”
Phil continues “We are disappointed nbn™ has not yet publicly acknowledged the issues with its fixed wireless network, despite complaints from providers such as ourselves for over 12 months.”
“Aussie Broadband would like the nbn™ to commit to fixing the fixed wireless network in the same way as it recently committed to fixing the HFC network in metro areas, including implementing a stop-sell on congested fixed wireless towers if necessary.”
“Fixed Wireless should be included in the new pricing structure along with the other access types to ensure the current digital divide between metro and regional areas is narrowed, not widened, by the nbn™ rollout”.
“Aussie Broadband will continue to advocate for rural and regional nbn™ users across Australia to have equal access to fast and reliable internet services”.
All information contained in this media release, including references to costs, speed, and capability of the Aussie Broadband network, was correct at time of publication, and may have since changed.
About Aussie Broadband Limited
Aussie Broadband is an Australian operated telecommunications company that was formed in 2008 and is based in Morwell Victoria, Australia.
The company's main focus is nbn® (NBN) subscription plans and bundles to residential homes, small businesses, not-for-profits, corporate/enterprise and managed service providers.
As a licensed carrier, the company provides these services through a wholesale agreement with NBN Co, a mix of leased backhaul infrastructure from third parties and its own network equipment.
The company also offers a range of other telecommunications services including VoIP, mobile plans, the OptiComm network and its white label platform.
With its acquisition of Over the Wire, the company is also a Tier 1 voice provider, and offers a range of tailored cloud, connect and collaborate solutions to business, government and enterprise customers.
Along with being a proud member of the Pledge 1% Movement, Small Change Big Change and more, Aussie Broadband is a certified B Corporation and the largest telco in Australia to hold accreditation.
Aussie Broadband has remained Australia's Most Trusted Brand in Telecommunications since December 2020 and was more recently named Australia's Most Trusted Telco for the second year in a row at the Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards for 2023.