Internode reveals NBN commercial pricing
Internode has released commercial pricing for its National Broadband Network (NBN) services, although the company has indicated that the prices could rise because of NBN Co's "flaws" in its pricing model.
All of the services that the internet service provider (ISP) is offering over the NBN will be bundled with a telephone service, with $10 included call credit a month.
The cheapest Internode plan, which plods along at 12Mbps/1Mbps, costs $59.95 per month for 30GB. 1TB at that speed costs $149.95 per month.
For those who want to get the best NBN speeds, 30GB at 100Mbps/40Mbps will cost $99.95 per month, and 1TB will cost $189.95 per month.
(Credit: Internode)
Uploads and downloads are being counted towards a user's quota. Once the quota is reached, shaping is applied, unless the user buys an additional Data Block.
Additional features, such as fixed IP addresses or priority business customer support, can be obtained by buying a power pack for $10 extra per month, or a business pack for $30 per month.
By comparison, Telstra's bundled 100Mbps/2Mbps hybrid fibre-coaxial service costs $79.95 per month for 200GB of download.
The new pricing will apply from the initial commercial launch of Internode's NBN Co-based services, which will happen when NBN Co says that an area is ready for commercial services, according to the telco. This is expected to happen in September or October.
However, Internode managing director Simon Hackett warned that the prices could go up in the future due to "existing flaws in the NBN Co wholesale charging model".
In an accompanying blog, Hackett said that NBN Co's "arbitrary" $20-per-megabit connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) charge imposes massive overhead costs for retail service providers, and suggested that to avoid this high cost, NBN Co should provide the first 200 megabits free of charge.
Those on the mainland who have been connected are paying their normal ADSL price, while getting NBN speeds. In Tasmania, there was a low-priced schedule created to take pricing away as an inhibitor for adoption.
Those prices started at $29.95 for 15GB at 25Mbps/2Mbps, and went up to $139.95 for 200GB at 100Mbps/40Mbps.
Those customers would be notified when the new pricing comes into effect, according to the telco.
Internode is carefully in line with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC's) new cut down on fibre speed advertising, stressing in its new prices that the speeds mentioned were port speeds, and wouldn't be the actual speeds reached in practice.
Some users have already complained of lower speeds than they were expecting on the network, with Internode saying that backhaul problems were causing slow speeds.
It will also be possible to receive an analog phone service once NBN Co makes it available, Internode said.
Mid last year, NBN Co said that the government was developing a solution that enabled legacy voice products to operate over the network.
The analog phone could plug into the network terminating unit via an ATA port, and 150kbps would be allocated for the service, allowing it to be exactly the same as services offered today.