Available for order today, Internode announced today 15 Fibre to the the Home (FTTH) plans for the National Broadband Network (NBN) Stage 1 pilot program in Tasmania, with installations expected to be started from early July.
Internode has an offer for free fibre set up for consumers in the three coverage areas of Stage 1; the Hobart suburb, Midaway Point and two Tasmanian towns Smithton and Scottsdale.
The 15 plans are broken into three tiers of pricing with entry level at speeds of 25Mbps downstream and 2Mbps upstream, mid at 50Mbps/4Mbps and high at 100Mbps/8 Mbps. Plans start from $29.95/month for 15GB of data allowance at the 25Mbps/2Mbps speeds — a price which is $10 cheaper than Internode’s cheapest broadband plan, to make FTTH more attractive to consumers.
“We believe price is the catalyst for rapid adoption,” said Internode’s managing director Simon Hackett. ”Customers, both in Tasmania and nationally, should keep in mind that this initiative is designed as a pilot program. These prices and products may bear little resemblance to what emerges under the NBN proper, but it’s a great start to offer plans that are affordable for ordinary people.”
The highest priced and fastest plan is $139.95 at 100 Mbps/8Mbps with 200GB, of quota which is $20 cheaper than iiNet’s top tier “Fibre 7” plan which is $159.95 for 180GB at the same speeds.
Internode is the last of the three ISP’s chosen to offer FTTH services using the NBN Tasmania fibre optic network to reveal their NBN pricing plans. Primus was the first to announce their FTTH prices on May 19 with its entry level plans starting from $39.95 per month for 15 GB at 25Mbps speeds.
The FTTH pricing plans offered by Internode have a life span up to June 30, 2011 and are to be treated as a market test. Customers that purchase Internode FTTH plans can choose to keep their existing traditional landline telephone or use the company’s NodePhone internet telephony services as fixed line phone service through the NBN premises telephone port will not be available from Internode.
Image credit: Delimiter screenshot of Internode website
If this is even close to the final pricing then these plans represent excellent value. Now let’s hope the rest of Australia gets the NBN rollout so I can get off this appalling ADSL-enabled RIM and my 5KB/sec speeds every night.
I agree, I would probably sign up for a 100Mbps plan (not that I think I would really use the speed that much, purely for bragging rights) with something like 60GB to start with and see how it goes. These prices are surprisingly reasonable. Although I guess I wouldn’t expect anything less from Internode, they have been known to subsidise quite heavily on occasion, and there is obviously a big NBN land grab about to kick off.
It should be pointed out you don’t need a phone line with the NBN, so if you go with any run of the mill VoIP provider for $10 a month you are saving an additional $20 if you axe your phone line (assuming a $30 phone line rental). I cant wait to get fibre now!
However, most people will still sign up for some kind of phone line with their ISP … it’s just what people are used to. We’re also talking about rural Taswegians here — no doubt there were people still on dial-up in these communities, as in any rural area in Australia.
FYI, the NBN connections to people’s houses do have two plugs in the wall, one ethernet for IP traffic and one traditional analogue phone plug, which NBN Co expects ISPs will use to connect up IP telephony services. Or you can just use an ATA device as many people are now using across ADSL and HFC broadband anyway (or even Skype, which we use at Delimiter because of its Unified Communications functionality).
Some very good value, although I’d like to see plans with higher upload speeds (with pricing increases not out of line with what they’ve released). 25Mbps upload should be available at least, with 100Mbps down. While symmetrical connections may not be possible on GPON, 100/50 is perfectly doable.
The SOHO Fibre plan (via other Fibre trials) are double the upstream of Home connections, so the fastest is 100/16
If you run a business they may offer a faster service to you, but given this a trial, maybe not.
I am pretty sure that NBN Co is only offering three speeds to providers — 100/8, 50/4 and 25/2. I haven’t seen any real business plans with symmetrical data yet. However I am not sure to what extent this is a technical decision and to what extent it’s a commercial decision.
I am still puzzled how Internode can roll out FTTH plans when the NBN is installing a FTTP product!
Wait, wut?
Frank, FTTH and FTTP are different acronyms mostly used to describe the same thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_to_the_x
What he said. Same thing!
OK, why compare to iiNet but not to Exetel and any other provider who has announced plans? Entry level plans on each speed are the same price as Exetel but if you use 1 Gb or more less than your quota you save on Exetel. Larger quota plans may be cheaper on Internode BUT it depends on your upload v download usage:
Exetel’s plans are DOWNLOAD ONLY, Internode’s are download plus upload.
Of course Internode’s include “free downloads” whereas Exetel does not, but if you don’t use those free sites then it doesn’t matter.
Fair point Peter, it would be worth doing a bigger comparison article at some point. We didn’t have a lot of time yesterday, it was a busy day ;)
For what it’s worth, I would personally recommend picking either iiNet or Internode’s plans anyway … I just don’t have a stack of confidence in the customer service offered by Primus or Exetel, given my own experiences and those of my friends, and this is a trial of the NBN after all, so you can expect some turbulence as the various ISPs work out how to properly support the whole thing and so on.
Price comparison wasn’t the focus of the article. Although, as Renai mentioned, it may be a good idea to do in the near future.
When this gets to Central Queensland I’d be happy to pay these rates – or, even a little more. I’m comparing with what’s available to me at present, and the Tasmanians have definitely the better deal at present.
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