The NBN is still but a glint in the eye of many Australians, but trials are steadily rolling out around Australia. Test customers have interim pricing plans, but now Internode has given insight into its wider NBN pricing plans, and perhaps how the competitive landscape may unfold…
Internode’s entry-level 30GB NBN plan matches its recently revamped 30GB Easy Naked ADSL2+ voice and data bundle. All their NBN plans will also bundle $10 of VoIP phone calls. Internode says “it will also become possible to obtain the bundled phone service as a conventional analogue fixed line voice service instead of using VoIP, once NBN Co releases this capability later in 2011.”
Full plan comparison in the table below. It’s worth noting that downloads and uploads will both count towards your data quota, and shaping applied after the data limit will be applied to all traffic. However, there will be extra data packs available. [Internode]
Meanwhile, here’s a quick look at iiNet’s NBN pricing. Until the end of July, iiNet NBN trial customers are getting 100/40 speeds, but that’s set to drop back to 25/5. For the moment, anyway. NBN Co is still rolling out the fibre, its backend, and various pricing systems.
So essentially — unless you’re part of a trial — all this pricing is just muscle flexing. In announcing Internode’s plans, MD Simon Hackett basically said as much when he admitted his pricing was “vulnerable to upward pressure.” We’ll be watching closely.