“Despite this explosion in data usage, many customers have remained on the same broadband plan for years,” NBN Co chief customer officer Anna Perrin said.
“Our network monitoring suggests that some customers are potentially hitting their maximum speed on a regular basis. These customers may enjoy a better internet experience on a faster speed tier.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says “reliable, quality, high-speed internet … is essential 21st century infrastructure”.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“And, most importantly, we are proposing to deliver these accelerated speeds at no extra wholesale cost to internet retailers. By working together with the industry, we hope to deliver these accelerated services to customers later this year or early next year,” Perrin said.
The company launched an industry consultation paper on Tuesday and said it is seeking input on introducing the changes sooner than planned, if possible.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said on Tuesday that: “Reliable, quality, high-speed internet is not a luxury or nice-to-have: it is essential 21st century infrastructure.
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“The government expects NBN to consult closely with its retail partners and work with them to enable these speed enhancements to be available for consumers as soon as practical.”
Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman called for more information from the government about who will pay for the upgrades.
“NBN says the upgrade would come at ‘no extra wholesale cost to retailers’ – but what about the cost to consumers?” he said.
“NBN sells its service to retailers, who then sell the product to consumers. The minister must explain, is the government saying there will be no increased costs to consumers, and that the planned upgrades will actually be ‘free’?
“Minister Rowland must explain the financial impact to taxpayers of this latest change to NBN’s plans.”
An NBN spokesman said the upgrades were possible thanks to nearly $7 billion worth of fibre upgrades from NBN Co and the federal government.
“Our existing investments in HFC and FTTP upgrades have laid a solid foundation for NBN to begin to unleash faster speeds and greater capacity, without NBN incurring or requiring any major additional capital investment,” the spokesman said.
“Critical to the success of the proposal will be internet retailers’ ability to transmit the higher wholesale speeds across their retail networks and ensure in-home equipment, such as modems and Wi-Fi routers, are capable of delivering the full benefits to customers. NBN Co will be seeking retailer feedback on what in-home equipment will be needed to bring the increased speeds to market.”
Retailers have largely welcomed the move. Phillip Britt, managing director of Aussie Broadband, said it could represent one of the most exciting steps in technology adoption for Australian households and businesses, but he also called for more investment in fixed broadband in regional areas.
A TPG spokesman said it’s critical that NBN Co not overlook customers who cannot afford pricier high-speed plans.
“If NBN was genuine about addressing affordability and high-speed access for all Australians, it would extend these benefits to the 70 per cent of NBN customers on its entry-level 12, 25, and 50Mbps plans,” the spokesman said. “In this cost-of-living crisis, it would be disappointing if only those with the financial means to access high-speed NBN plans reaped the benefits of these upgrades.”
As this masthead reported in February, a faster NBN is set to deliver a $400 billion boost to Australia’s economy by 2030, despite recent price rises for many customers and statistics showing thousands of Australians have dumped the network in recent months.
The economic modelling from consulting giant Accenture, commissioned by NBN Co, found that for every 1 megabit per second in average broadband speed Australia’s productivity-driven GDP rose by 0.04 per cent on average between 2012 and 2022, an uplift worth about $122 billion to the economy.
The network is facing unprecedented competition, however – particularly in regional Australia – as consumers increasingly switch to cheaper, or in some cases, more reliable options including mobile hotspots and Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system.
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