Optus unveils NBN small business plans

update Optus has announced a range of National Broadband Network (NBN) plans targeted at small businesses, starting at $59 per month.

(Screenshot by Josh Taylor/ZDNet Australia)

The 12- or 24-month packages are ideal for small businesses in the NBN first release sites with up to five employees, according to Optus. All the packages come equipped with Optus' OfficeApps for email, file and calendar storage in its cloud, as well as customer care, installation and an NBN-compatible Wi-Fi modem.

Prices on the lowest speed package of 25 megabits per second (Mbps) downlink and 5Mbps uplink start at $59 per month with 100GB of data included. The $89 plan gets 500GB of data, while the $119 plan gets 1TB of data per month.

Broadband plans bundled with phones start at $99 for 120GB of data, up to $129 for 1TB of data per month. These plans come with unlimited calls to fixed line and Optus mobiles.

Similar to Optus' consumer plans, if businesses require extra speed, they can buy speed packs for an extra boost. For an extra $5 per month, Optus will boost a customer's upload speed to 10Mbps. For an extra $10 per month, the speed will be 50Mbps down and 20Mbps up. The highest available speed pack will set the business back $20 extra per month for 100Mbps down and 40Mbps up.

Following signing on to a year-long agreement with NBN Co last month, Optus said that it plans to expand its consumer broadband and home bundles in March to include 24-month contracts.

Optus managing director for small to medium business, Rohan Ganeson, said this was the first of many NBN packages Optus plans to offer to small businesses.

"As the roll-out progresses, we'll expand our NBN packages to cater for larger offices and add more Optus OfficeApps inclusions to help businesses run their operations faster and smarter," he said in a statement. "The NBN opens the door for small businesses to take advantage of high-speed broadband to do business in new ways, and make use of the latest digital tools to be more efficient and competitive."

Updated at 2:05pm, 7 February 2012: Optus later clarified that $59 plans are the same speed for both businesses and consumers.