iiNet leads the way on NBN fibre pricing

Internet service provider iiNet has led the market to reveal prices for fibre to the home (FttH) services in Tasmania, despite not knowing the wholesale price to be charged by Tasmanian NBN Co.

Linked gallery: Photos: Internode, Primus, iiNet sign up for Tassie NBN

Primus, iiNet and Internode were today officially announced as the first service providers that will provide retail services to stage one communities via a wholesale network agreement with Tasmania NBN Co (TNBN Co).

Whilst TNBN Co is yet to provide the ISPs with its wholesale pricing, iTnews understands that the Government-funded entity has provided ISP's with an estimate refined enough for iiNet to express its retail pricing with some level of confidence.

Steve Dalby, chief regulatory officer for iiNet told iTnews that subscribers to FttH services in Midway Point, Scottsdale and Smithtown would pay prices that are not materially different to prices advertised in an existing greenfield estate served by iiNet - the Alamanda Estate in Point Cook, Victoria.

iiNet's existing fibre pricing regime begins with a 25 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds, with a cap of 5 Gigabytes of data in each direction, for $49.95 per month, and its fastest plans (for 100 Mbps downloads and 5 Mbps uploads) at $129.95 per month for 60 GB of data consumption in each direction and $159.95 for 90 GB of data consumption.

Dalby said services delivered via TNBN Co are expected to be delivered within a similar price range to those offered by network builder Opticomm.

Opticomm rolled out fibre at both the Alamanda Estate and is in turn contracted to roll out the active network equipment, customer connections and Network Operation Centre (NOC) services for Phase One of TNBN Co's fibre network during the second half of 2010.

Primus, which also offers services at Point Cook via Opticomm, is yet to reveal pricing. Primus CEO Ravi Bhatia told iTnews that Primus was still in discussions to determine the cost of providing the service.

Similarly, a spokesman for Internode said the company was unsure if it would mirror its existing fibre pricing regime when offering services over Tasmania's NBN, given that the cost of transferring data between Tasmania and the mainland continues to be an issue. Internode said it would provide more pricing information closer to the launch.

Phil Smith, general manager at Opticomm told iTnews that Internode's current fibre pricing should be considered "a good guideline" for what Internode will offer in Tasmania.