Yesterday, shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull was quoted by Clancy Yeates in the SMH as saying NBN access was likely to cost Australians between $65 and $70 a month, yet that price is “extraordinary”. What the hell?
Despite the fact that those figures roughly equate to what us nerds were paying for early 512kb ADSL and that most Gizmodians would already be spending more than that each month, Turnbull has completely neglected to factor in the $30 a month almost every ADSL user has to pay for line rental already. Looking at Telstra’s cheapest ADSL2+ plan – $9.95 a month – the cost actually works out at about $69 a month when you factor in the modem and line rental, and that’s only if you have a Telstra mobile plan as well (working it out from the 24 month plan’s minimum cost of $1677.60).
Obviously there are cheaper options than Telstra. But to do away with line rental, you’re still paying at least $50, but without fibre speeds. So the step up to NBN speeds for a slightly higher cost seems a no-brainer.
But we still want to ask: How much would be too much for NBN access? What’s the most you’re willing to pay to get access to 1000Mbps speeds?
Joey
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 9:41 AMI have optus cable. I’m very happy with it 17Mbps. $69 a month for 120gb.. The only thing i would change is more data say 250gb.
So to answer your question i would expect to pay about $99 a month for 1000gbps.
These people in parliament have no concept at all. there all old and should be put in nursing homes.
Lachlan Heywood
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:36 AM*They’re
Daniel
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 12:40 PMAre you serious?
Mememe
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 1:25 PMThanks to TPG’s new plan I’m paying $30 line rental + $29.99 ADSL2+ Unlimited.
I’m enjoying it!
Tezz
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 3:48 PMyou wont be getting 1000gb/s, thats ludicrous, that is 1 terabit/second.
you should check the figures before you accuse other people of having no concept as you clearly dont have one any idea either.
Joey
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 4:26 PMThat was an error on my behalf, Sorry bout that.
LucasF
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 8:15 PMFor 1GB/s I would happily fork out $100 a month.
Darren
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 9:43 AMi’d pay $80 a month without flinching for anything over 10mbit… i currently pay $50 (1.5/20gb) plus $29 (line), so the idea of scrapping the phone line and paying $80 flat for ‘super’ speeds is extremely attractive. i’m sure most of you agree…
Normandy
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 9:52 AMI pay 133 bucks a month for a crap ADSL 1 connection that lucky if it gives me 1MB on a good day, with a crap 60GB data , Thanks to Telstra wholesale crap pricing! Paying 70 bucks a month for 1000% better internet, sounds like a fricken bargin to me !
Dan
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 9:54 AMI think a $15 to $30 premium over the cost of a present-day adsl2 connection (incl line rental) is fair.. obviously you will get cheaper plans with small data allowances, expensive plans with lots of data, expensive carriers with great support, cheaper carriers for those who don’t want/need support… Etc etc
Daz
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 9:54 AMYou’ll have to forgive Mal here. It’s been a while since the days of Ozemail charging $29.95 a month for 30 hours!!! Slightly out of touch……
Graham
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 9:56 AMFor the last 15 years the most I’ve ever been willing to pay for internet access is approx $50 a month and thats not likely to change unless those plans dry up. In terms of inflation that means Im paying much less now in real terms than I was 15 years ago. I run a small web based business from home (sole trader) and try to keep my costs to a bare minimum.
I do still require a landline though so factoring in line rental I’d be willing to go to $70 if line rental was included.
Im also the type of person that has never bothered getting cable/sat TV as FTA TV offers more than enough for me.
I suspect that Turnbull is correct in that for many people $70 will just seem too much ($50 may be the sweet spot for not just myself) but as per usual the libs have overdramatised it. $70 is not “extraordinary”, but that pricing may be a negative for many.
Remember that not everyone is interested in faster speeds, there’s still a lot of people who just use the net for email and a little web surfing. Its the media consumers who really benefit from the higher speeds.
Luke
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 9:56 AMWow… i didnt know we were getting 1000gbps, anyways i at most would pay $85 a month for an NBN connection.
Lee H
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 9:58 AMYou are forgeting about the $2150 ($43B for 20M people) sign up fee per person that the whole of australia will be paying.
Cameron
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:37 AMBecause the NBN is solely funded from income tax? None of the money is at all coming from company tax or mining resource tax or import tariffs or GST?
Nads
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:01 AMBAM!!
cam
Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 12:31 PMEver heard of opportunity cost?
Namarrgon
Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 12:13 PMDon’t forget, that’s amortised over the next 40-50 years, so around $3.50-4.50 per month. That’s pretty reasonable for such a major infrastructure upgrade.
Rossco
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 9:59 AMEven if we are getting 100Mbps when it is installed I would be happy, I don’t see us getting a 1000Gbps any time soon (I think it is a typo in your article). The thing that seems to be forgotten in all this hype is the question of what is being done about the pipe from here to North America? If that is not improved, what is the point for the home user (the advantage for business is obvious though) of having a faster local connection within Australia when we are bottlenecked so badly for outbound connections?
Nick Broughall
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:48 AMYeah, it was a typo – fixed now.
Cam
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:04 AMI think the deciding factor is going to be how generous they are with quota. No point having gig speeds and then 20gb worth of downloads.
For me? $50-70/mth with ~250gb I think is reasonable.
Josh
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 6:33 PMWe currently pay $70 per month (although we have a bundle plan so it’s actually a little cheaper) for ADSL2+ broadband w/ 12GB data per month, and Tel$tra hasn’t had the decency to automatically update our plan to the 50GB plan they now have. I find it bloody ridiculous that we can be charged so much for such little amount of data, and apparently 50GB per month is ‘more than what we need’.
Chris H
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:18 AMThis politicking is an attempt to destroy national infrastructure. NBN is great for individual users but business absolutely needs it – and at the right price.
The electricity similie would have Turnbull make us buy a fixed wheel pushbike, hook it up to a generator and make us cycle for power.
S Kumar
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:26 AMI have in the past paid upto $99 for Telstra Cable plans and I’m currently paying $79 in the Metro area including the phone line, so I find paying less completely unacceptable (yes, for the Turnbull supporters, that tone is sarcasm)
Rhys
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:28 AMI’d love to not pay line rental and get 60 – 100gig + for $60/m. If I had 60gig per month I’d like to pay $50.
Adam
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:30 AMi pay $88 for telsta 100Mb Cable (actually tests at 116Mb/Sec) with 100gb download/upload and a home phone that i never use..
Shane
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:35 AMIt depends.
How much download? Are uploads included? Are there off/on peak restrictions and what are they??
I’d happily pay about the same amount now for faster speed at the same conditions I’m currently under.
ubetido
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:45 AMunfortunately for Mal and many of his ilk he has little or no “Real World” experience, seriously doubt he would know the the cost of a loaf of bread either.
Greg
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:07 AMEven though NBN will give 1Gbps, I doubt that it will be available to the average consumer, and realistically, who needs 1Gbps at home?
I think 100Mbps is fine, and I’d happily pay $100/month with 100GB.
At the moment, I am with Internode Easy Broadband. Syncing at 10Mbit, 50Gb for $60. so I’d be happy with anything around that price, since Fibre will be 1000x more stable than ADSL.
Adam
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:32 AMgo get a Telstra bundle then.. $88 for 100Mb/Sec
Rich
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 1:59 PMYeah, because this magical 100Mbps Telstra bundle is available to every home in Australia…
“Ultimate Cable is currently only available to customers in selected areas of Melbourne who are in the Ultimate Cable area and have a 13-digit account number.”
That’s great for those of you that live in “select areas of Melbourne”, but for the rest of us we don’t have the option. I live in a major suburb of Perth and there is no cable service at all.
This is the point of the NBN; to provide fast, reliable, future-proof broadband service to the vast majority (93%) of Australians! Not just those lucky few that live in “select areas” of Melbourne or Sydney.
MDolley
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:14 AMI am on iiNet Naked 1. 50/50GB of data, unlimited local and national calls for $59/month.
I would gladly pay $70 – $80 a month if it had a similar or higher data allowance and included VOIP calls.
As for if the NBN should go ahead or not? I am a database developer and I regularly have to connect to clients networks. Doing this for clients that have ADSL2+ can be painful, those with only ADSL1 it’s usually easier for me to drive over there.
David Gray
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:16 AMShh! If Turnbull wants to charge us $70 with line rentals and such, let him. Don’t screw this up!
But my guess is that ISPs will charge you $70 for 2gb of data or something ridiculous. Even if they don’t have to spend anything extra to get the increase in speed, we’ll still be charged through the nose.
Seamus Byrne
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 12:43 PMTasmania has been around $30-$40 for low-ball plans, and up to around $150 for very high-end stuff. So there’s a lot more room than the ‘$65-70′ he’s talking about.
Nich
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:27 AMWell I currently fork out $109.95/month for 240GByte/month SOHO ADSL2+ which I only manage to sync at about 4000Kbit/900Kbit – which has a tendency to be relay flaky when its wet.
I would be ecstatic pay that just for a STABLE 10Mbit fiber connections…. I would very happily pay $250/month for a 1Gbit internet connection – as long as it also came with a very considerate data allocation.
Jamie Carl
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:29 AMI don’t even know what I’m paying for my current ADSL2. It’s bundled in with so many options like VoIP lines, line rental, phone calls, blah blah blah. I think if it’s anything less than $150 I’ll be in front.
Just Get On With It
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:36 AMTurnbull has conveniently forgotten to say the $65 to $70 per month for NBN would include your telephone service (rental) VOIP and not just broadband access. Of course it makes good press to leave out all the details just to stir up the those who don’t know any better and to provide ammo for the anti NBN group..
Brendan O'Reilly
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 11:40 AMI pay around $80 a month of unlimited downloads on adsl…however the internet in the mountains (west of sydney) is usually the equivalent of dial-up, so if they wanna charge that…actually deliver some slightly speedy internet for once and don’t cap people to something stupid like 2gb’s a month, sure, why not.
Matejay
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 12:08 PM$50 – $70 a month for something like 250 – 500GB download limit at those speeds would seem fine… of course no line rental and only capped speed after using up the allowance. And Mr. Turnbull has no fric*** idea on what regular people are dealing with and paying for and his only job currently is to stir-up an argument for an arguments sake… so just ignore him and he’ll crawl back into his cave once again.
Tom
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 12:42 PMI’m currently on Naked 3 with iiNet, paying about $70 a month. I’m quite happy to be paying $100 even for close to 100mbps, as it’ll be a ten-fold increase.