The Australian government is due to officially announce the first services on the NBN Co fiber network this week, according to sources.
The unfunded NBN Co, which has been created by the government to roll out a next-gen access network to Australia’s 4 million households, has so far passed just 3,000 homes, mostly in the southern state of Tasmania.
Three ISPs – iiNet, Primus and Internode – have begun a trial service to existing broadband customers in three Tasmanian suburbs.
“NBN Co has asked us to make sure the network’s all working properly first before the official launch and in practice, the trial has gone very smoothly,” said Michael Malone, CEO of iiNet.
The three ISPs are shouldering subscriber's upfront costs, including an average A$200 (€134.73) per home for internal cabling as well as the cost of the modem. The ISPs are also waiving subscribers’ A$150 connection fee for the first two months.
Malone says iiNet’s fiber offer starts at A$49.95 per month for 10GB of data at 25Mbps, and goes up to A$99.95 per month for double the speed and 100GB
“iiNet covers the cost of internal cabling and supplies a high-end router that handles Wi-Fi and telephony,” says Malone. “This is not the case for the other ISPs.”
Internode’s pricing starts from A$29.95 per month for the first 12 months, with Primus offering $79.95 starter packs.
For its part, NBN Co won’t charge the ISPs for fiber access for the first 12 months.
“NBN Co is working so tightly with ISPs,” says Malone. “We are all on the same page and just want to get customers on line.”
NBN Co, the government and Telstra have struck a preliminary deal.