Dodo offers off-peak ‘unlimited’ 100Mbps NBN plans

12

dodo-1

news National broadband provider Dodo has finally entered the race to connect customers to the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network infrastructure, launching a host of new NBN plans today at four speed tiers and with the option to add unlimited off-peak data for just $15 extra per month.

Along with TPG, Dodo, owned by ASX-listed M2 Telecommunications, is one of Australia’s only major ISPs not to have previously launched NBN offerings, with the company appearing to have seen the NBN market as being too small to target. However, today the ISP launched a wide range of NBN plans to target customers able to connect to the infrastructure.

Dodo has launched four speed tiers for its plans at the normal 12Mbps, 25Mbps, 50Mbps and 100Mbps levels. Each speed tier can be purchased with four different levels of download quotas. For all four speed tiers, 10GB, 50GB and 200GB plans are on offer. For the highest quota level, Dodo is offering an “Unlimited” level for its 12Mbps plans, and a 2TB level for every other speed tier.

However, the company has also added an additional option, giving customers the ability to get unlimited off-peak data with any plan for an extra $15 per month. This means that between the hours of 2AM and 8AM, customers will be able to download as much as they want. If customers breach their quota, then their service will be shaped to 64kbps speeds — or about the speed of a dial-up modem.

Dodo’s prices range from $29.90 a month for its lowest-end plan up to $89.90 per month for its highest-speed, highest-quota plan — and then customers will need to pay $15 extra if they want the full off-peak unlimited download capability.

The company is also offering bundled home phone services on a pay as you go plan for zero dollars up-front per month, or with various options such as unlimited local calls for $10 or $20 per month. Its set-up costs range from free, if customers connect to a 24 month plan, to $99 for a pay as you go plan with no term, and it is also offering a four port “fibre router” for $120.

The company has issued a statement noting that it believes it has launched what are “some of the most aggressive plans in the market”.

Most other ISPs who offer NBN plans do not offer so-called ‘unlimited’ pans. TPG, which has long been a rival of Dodo, revealed in September last year that it would offer at least one plan with unlimited downloads — a 12Mbps offering for $69.99 per month. On a 12Mbps NBN plan, the maximum quota a user could download per month would be close to 3.1 Terabytes.

opinion/analysis
I argued in an article published in mid-2012 that the main competition for customers’ business in an NBN world would be on price. My reasoning at the time:

“In an NBN world, where the underlying broadband infrastructure will be so much more reliable and so much faster and more responsive, there will be no need for customers to pay the premiums which ISPs like Telstra, Optus and iiNet currently enjoy, when basic broadband access is already so fantastic. And with the world of content suddenly at their virtual doorstep, there will be very little need for that content to be piped into Australia with a big fat extra profit margin slapped on top by local ISPs.

If I think about the world of the NBN, I think about signing up with TPG or Dodo for a 100Mbps plan that will probably offer me a terabyte of quota for something like $50 to $60 a month. Because when the fibre cable running to my premise will be so fantastic, there will be no more need to keep paying top-tier ISPs insurance money to ensure a steady service or for value-added products; that reliability will just come built-in, and the best value-added broadband products will come from global suppliers.”

In my opinion, that’s precisely what we’re seeing here from Dodo — great, cheap NBN plans that will offer pretty much the same quality of service as an iiNet, a Telstra or an Optus. Sure, there might be some contention issues, but when the underlying pipe is so powerful, it’s hard to see it as a huge problem. Just don’t rely on getting great downloads between 2AM and 8AM ;)

12 COMMENTS

  1. It was for sure going to happen. When pretty much every RSP is charged the same wholesale access costs, price becomes the only real thing to compete on, which in this case, has worked out for the better.

    We probably won’t see the likes of iiNet, or even Telstra reducing the costs of their plans, but that’s ok, it does show the Coalition that there can be cheapness to be had on an all fibre network.

    • I’m in the south brisbane area, which was originally going to be rolled into the NBNco but now since everything thats going on i’m not sure anymore? Does anyone know more about this situation?

      • Because the South Brisbane area already has fibre to the premises fully installed it’s just a matter of NBN Co. switching over the networking equipment from Telstra to the NBN. Fibre to the node and HFC are no longer an option.

        The South Brisbane area was planned to begin transitioning to the NBN in September 2013 and is now scheduled for November 2013. The date may slip again but it will happen.

  2. ooooh, there is a ‘Click to Edit’ now. Awesome news, very very very awesome news!

  3. It’ll be interesting to see how high they put their contention. 10 bucks for a VOIP plan seems pretty good.

  4. Some parts of your article are incorrect…
    You say “M2 Telecommunications, is one of Australia’s only major ISPs not to have previously launched NBN offerings, with the company appearing to have seen the NBN market as being too small to target”

    M2 Telecommunications Group owns iPrimus which was actually one of the first RSP’s accredited to supply on the NBN… iPrimus have offered NBN plans for years since the NBN was first rolled out… M2 also offer NBN plans through their Commander Band. I have been using the NBN on iPrimus and it is quite decent.

    • I think you may be mis-reading the sentence, as you omitted the part the gives context; it wasn’t saying M2 Telecommunications hasn’t provided NBN plans, it was saying Dodo (who is owned by M2 Telecommunications) hasn’t offered NBN plans.

      “Dodo, owned by ASX-listed M2 Telecommunications, is one of Australia’s only major ISPs not to have previously launched NBN offerings”

  5. Sure Dodo will sell you a 100Mbs NBN plan, but they’ll only have 20Mbs of backhaul to you POP. That’s why they’re cheap, the same thing with their ADSL services, the ADSL service isn’t any different to that on offer from Internode or iiNet, but the network capacity beyond the connection running to your house is completely under provisioned.

    These companies need to be forced to show their contention ratio as part of the product offerings, especially in an NBN world. With NBN connections the connection speed really is just a setting on a computer somewhere, it’s not longer “as fast as you can get” like with ADSL, it’s hard set. That in mind, we need to know if what were buying can actually be delivered to us beyond that set speed on the link to our house.

    • Been using Dodo daily on ADSL for the past 10 years & have never noticed any significant traffic slowdowns at peak times in our area.

  6. +100
    your right Cameron these plans don’t mean anything unless they have adequate backhaul.

  7. I don’t understand why they charge $15/month extra for off-peak unlimited. Off-peak data doesn’t cost them a single penny extra. It seems to me they’re just trying to fleece their customers.

Comments are closed.