Telstra, Vocus and TPG to trial NBN enterprise services

Telstra, Vocus and TPG will trial NBN Co’s rebooted enterprise broadband products, which are due to be commercially available later this year.

The three telcos were named as trial participants by NBN Co today.

“In the early stages of the trial, participating phone and internet providers will identify a number of business customers with varying construction and broadband requirements, where our focus will be on testing the infrastructure design and build,” NBN Co’s chief customer officer for business, John Simon said.

“As we near closer to launch, we will begin to test the performance of the product as well as internal processes to ensure we are positioned to meet the growing needs of enterprises.

“The trial will give retailers the opportunity to provide feedback on the design and delivery of the product and ensure it is competitive and valuable option for their enterprise customers.”

NBN Co has had enterprise Ethernet products on its roadmap for some time. It had been planning to bring one construct to market as early as Q2 2017, but the launch was delayed through last year before a change of direction was announced.

Getting the business suite of products right is critical for NBN Co, given it has ambitions for the products to take care of 20 percent of its overall revenue.

NBN Co also sees enterprise and government accounts as a way to boost its overall average revenue per user (ARPU), allowing it to potentially meet its corporate plan targets.

Residential ARPU has shown few signs of growing at the rates forecast in the plan, leading NBN Co to look elsewhere.

One of the major challenges for NBN Co in establishing itself as an enterprise player, however, will be its ability to offer connectivity and customer service levels that such users expect.

It has already said it plans to prioritise enterprise over residential orders, and the trials with three major telcos already in the enterprise space could help it iron out any further process issues.

NBN Co said it is now looking at a Q3 2018 commercial launch for enterprise Ethernet services.

The company also yesterday started making preparations to offer enterprise services delivered over its Sky Muster satellites.