That’s just one of the initial NBN prices that has recently emerged as part of iiNet’s Tasmanian NBN pricing scheme - Mind you, the data usage allowance is split into 90GB peak/90Gb offpeak.
Steve Dalby, chief regulatory officer for iiNet has indicated that the TNBN plans could very well be in a similar pricing structure as their existing Fibre Optic Broadband products which are offered in greenfield estates such as Alamanda in Point Cook, Victoria. 180GB of data sounds reasonable enough and so does 100Mbps broadband speeds, however its the price tag (as always) that is the surprising key factor in question here.
Sure it might be early days yet in which there appears to be limited competition and lack of demand for NBN related services, however one would imagine the necessity of consumer uptake to be taken into consideration and for pricing to be in accordance to the NBN guidelines. Data limits from 30GB to 180GB (split into equal an peak/offpeak allowances) ranging from $69.95 to $159.95 based on iiNet’s scale, just doesn’t provide much incentive to switch across to the NBN does it?
One must remember that the Federal Governments NBN promise was to deliver fast broadband and affordable broadband prices. We’ve been hearing this over and over again. Or should this only commence when the NBN is fully operational after the projected 8 years implementation period is up and competition is rife? Surely not! You can’t blame the likes of iiNet, iPrimus and Internode to try and reap what they can, as the NBN is the Government’s baby so the buck should stop with them.
Below is a list consisting of iiNet’s current Fibre pricing table. Should this be an indication of the upcoming NBN broadband prices, broadband speeds and broadband data usage allowance, then the Government has basically scoffed on another promise. Only time will tell.
Only some of the quotes taken from Stephen Conroy’s media release documents that revolve around NBN pricing.
“put downward pressure on consumer prices”
|
Plans |
Down/Up Speed |
Peak + Offpeak |
Price |
|
Fibre 1 |
25 / 1 Mbps |
5GB + 5GB |
$49.95 |
|
Fibre 2 |
25 / 1 Mbps |
10GB + 10GB |
$59.95 |
|
Fibre 3 |
25 / 1 Mbps |
30GB + 30GB |
$69.95 |
|
Fibre 4 |
50 / 2 Mbps |
30GB + 30GB |
$89.95 |
|
Fibre 5 |
50 / 2 Mbps |
50GB + 50GB |
$99.95 |
|
Fibre 6 |
100 / 5 Mbps |
60GB + 60GB |
$129.95 |
|
Fibre 7 |
100 / 5 Mbps |
90GB + 90GB |
$159.95 |
I have to admit my taxes being used for this project ticks me off because it seems to me that there are much more important projects to be finding a solution to and ‘superfast’ internet to the average person basically means nothing at the moment.
Remember dial up? now think about how you used the internet then compared to now – there was no skype, youtube, online gaming networks, pay per view movies (telstra t-box stuff) and yet today it seems almost unthinkable to go without some of these services so what will the next generation of internet give us? we can only wait and see.
To the service providers however, it allows them to ramp up their services like VOIP, IP TV, Web site and email hosting to a much larger market and these sometimes unreliable services will eventually become the norm and instead of having a bill with just telephone calls you’ll have an internet bill with a voip account. Foxtel might even have to compete with likes of IP TV/pay per view.
To business outside of the IT sector it means that they can have alot more services held onsite and more services offered to their employees eg remote web workplace, vpn hosting, internal email hosting for remote offices. There are so many options from a technicians point of view.
Unfortunately these technologies take time to implement and even longer for the general mass’s to accept them as part of every day life (anyone have an elderly relative with a new digital set top box??? kill me now)
So I’m not really holding my breath for an major changes to happen quickly – once the infrastructure is in the technicians need to learn how to use it efficiently.
Those plans do suck but keep in mind there is an entire copper network with billions invested in it and I imagine there would be a limited number connections the Tassie network, so like everything exclusive it comes with a premium. Until it becomes all inclusive, in which case the premium is dropped(yay).
5Mbps is a joke, i don’t understand why Aus upload speeds are so terrible, i get why consumers aren’t given synchronous speeds in the big picture, but at least give ABN holders 100/15.
i just felt like throwing that out there and venting my views, in summary i think we have been given a lemon, now it’s time to roll it in sugar and make the most of it
At a time when we are supposed to be using less electricity, has anyone stopped to worked out how much this will add to our collective power requirements. And what happens to our telephones if we have a power blackout?
I agree with John. Anonymous, you have to be a Labor stooge. You have to be, to believe it’ll cost what Labor say, and that it won’t be much more than current ADSL2+ prices. It’s a complete waste of money, esp when more and more people are going wireless with their communication. I certainly won’t be signing up. Just when you think Labor has wasted enough money, they find something else. We’re only just finding out how much NSW is in debt. That’s nothing compared to how much the Feds have put us in.
They have to be joking with the High price and crappy download limits, I pay $50 per month from TPG, I get 15Mbps speeds “lucky to be about 2Klms from the exchange” and 200GB download, I find it way fast enough for me,how fast do you want Google to open:>) you won’t be downloading much,I hope there is a change of government before they tear up the copper in my suburb and force me into this over priced crap
Actually, Andy, it isn’t much more expensive than current ADSL2+ prices. When the NBN is finished the quoted prices above will most likely be a lot less.
Absolutley a rip off! These data limits have sent us backwards and not affordable at all. Come on guys give us something more realistic