NBN Co is hoping its growing focus on the business market will contribute “around half” of the overall average revenue per user (ARPU) uplift it is targeting by 2022.
CEO Stephen Rue told the company’s Q1 results briefing today that NBN Co would not have to lift its wholesale prices in order to achieve a $51 ARPU as has always been envisioned by the corporate plan.
“I want to address some misconceptions around ARPU targets and wholesale pricing. ARPU and prices are not the same thing,” Rue said.
“Our ARPU growth in the corporate plan from $44 today to $51 by 2022 is not reliant on price increases.
“In fact around half of this lift in ARPU is due to revenue from the business segment.
“The lift in residential ARPU arises from higher wholesale speed tier takeup and additional data purchased, not price rises.”
NBN Co has only recently started taking orders in its new enterprise Ethernet business.
The services come with a dedicated operations centre, premium appointments and symmetrical speeds, in a bid to attract a high-value clientele to the government-backed telco.
NBN Co has previously suggested up to 20 percent of its overall revenue could come from the business market in future.
Rue also used the results briefing to reiterate his comments from last month that NBN Co would not cede to demands from Telstra and others to reduce residential prices.
“Some have called for NBN Co to significantly reduce wholesale prices charged, resulting in a large reduction of revenue generated into the future,” he said.
“We revised our revenue forecasts after making changes to our pricing last year.
“We have naturally no intention of diverting from our overall revenue projections outlined in our latest corporate plan.”
NBN Co's revenue for the three months to September 30 this year reached $620 million, the company said.
More to come
