Opinion: Internode must slash its horrible NBN pricing

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opinion The release of iiNet’s highly affordable National Broadband Network pricing this morning makes it as crystal clear as the view from Simon Hackett’s glider that fellow ISP Internode must drastically slash its own significantly more expensive prices or be left out of the NBN race altogether.

Let’s do a quick comparison of some of the pricing to understand just how more expensive Internode’s NBN pricing plans are right now.

It looks like iiNet has broadly foreseen three main types of customers who will connect to the NBN infrastructure, which is increasingly being rolled out around Australia and will touch some 1.7 million residences by 2013.

The first type of customer is one who will only use their NBN connection for basic purposes — web and email use, with some light ongoing video and perhaps streaming audio. This customer will probably use iiNet’s bundled telephone connection more so than they will their actual broadband connection in the short-term, until they realise the benefits that fast broadband brings. They’ll get 20GB of on-peak and 20GB of off-peak data quota, with monthly pricing ranging from $59.90 a month to $79.90 a month depending on what speed they choose, and including iiNet’s internet telephony service.

Immediately it’s easy to see that Internode’s plans are in general, slightly more expensive than iiNet’s in this area — ranging from $59.95 a month up to $99.95 a month, and with slightly less overall quota (30GB), although that quota can be used at any time and doesn’t have on/off-peak limitations.

When you get to the mid-level customer category, where we anticipate most customers will sit in the short-term, the situation worsens.

An iiNet customer with 100GB/100GB of quota will be charged between $69.90 to $89.90 per month for access to the NBN (again including a telephone line), depending on what speed they choose, while a comparable Internode customer on a 200GB plan will be charged between $79.95 and $119.95 for the exact same package — that’s up to $30 more per month.

Internode does have a pricing category which iiNet doesn’t — including a 300GB plan — but that’s even more expensive, ranging between $99.95 a month and $139.95 a month. In short, if you went with Internode, you could get an extra 100GB quota on top of iiNet’s 100GB/100GB plan, and the freedom to use that quota at whatever hour you wanted — but you’d pay between $30 and $50 more per month for the privilege.

However, it’s when you get to the highest tier of plans — which we assume many Delimiter readers are going to be interested in — that things get really insane.

iiNet customers on the company’s 500GB/500GB ‘terabyte’ pricing plans on the NBN will pay between $89.90 and $109.90 per month, while Internode customers will pay an incredible $149.95 to $189.95 — almost double the price at the top end. In this case, at the extreme top end, Internode customers will literally be paying $80 more for almost the exact same NBN plan than iiNet customers. That’s just crazy — and we can’t see even the most loyal Internode customers signing up to throw their money away like that.

Now, it seems clear what has happened here.

Over the past decade, Internode has taken a consistent approach to pricing its broadband and other telecommunications services. The company appears to normally price its services at a level that will allow it to make a modest profit and recognise that it’s not the bargain barrel end of the market; Internode has a better constructed network and better customer service than most ISPs — so it charges a modest premium to match that principle.

Internode’s initial tranche of NBN pricing also appeared to be set a little high to match the company’s public statements that NBN Co’s wholesale pricing was too high to be sustainable. In short, part of the reason why Internode’s NBN pricing was set so high may have been that the company was attempting to use the plans as a tool to leverage NBN Co into chopping its own prices.

However, what Internode doesn’t appear to have recognised in the process is the degree to which other telcos are keen to sacrifice some short-term profit for long-term market share.

As many in the industry have noted, the shift from Telstra’s copper network and the HFC cable networks onto the predominantly fibre-based NBN represents a massive opportunity for ISPs to change the broadband market share landscape in Australia. And as the NBN rolls out and customers are faced with a choice of NBN providers, price will be a major factor.

As Exetel’s John Linton has pointed out (although his argument is not completely convincing), in many ways ISPs’ networks will perform the same over the NBN, so they will be forced to compete in other ways — such as through great customer service, value-added services, or on price. And when it comes to a service such as broadband, ultimately price is going to be one of, if not the, main deciding factors when customers choose which NBN ISP to sign up with.

You would expect cut-rate ISPs like Exetel or Dodo to come out with cheap NBN plans. But iiNet’s pricing plans released this morning represent a shot across Internode’s bow. iiNet’s prices demonstrate that the company is clearly happy to sacrifice much of its profit margins in order to massively increase its market share in an NBN world. The company isn’t happy just to compete on price with Telstra, Optus and Internode — it wants to take the battle to cheaper ISPs like Exetel and TPG as well.

And one more thing. If the release of relatively expensive NBN pricing was a ploy to stimulate NBN Co into cutting its wholesale pricing, that ploy succeeded. In mid-August, NBN Co reached a deal with its customer ISPs that will see the company issue a rebate on the CVC links which provision traffic to end user customers on the NBN.

The deal — which was welcomed by both iiNet and Internode in NBN Co’s own media release — gives smaller ISPs an easy on-ramp to the NBN without having to lay out massive up-front costs. And that’s assuming they’re not already planning to use an NBN aggregator to provide NBN services to retail customers.

I have no doubt that without the rebate, iiNet’s NBN prices released today would be higher than they are. But Internode didn’t blink when the rebate was released — stating it wouldn’t cut its prices as the rebate wouldn’t reduce the long-term cost to ISPs participating in the NBN; as it only applies until 30,000 premises are passed in an area connected to one of the NBN’s 121 points of interconnect. I can understand Internode’s reasoning in that case; it has to look after its long-term interests. But the release of iiNet’s plans this morning has left the company looking more than a little inflexible in the face of NBN Co’s olive branch.

I’ve asked Internode this morning whether it will update its plans in the wake of iiNet’s release. It will be interesting to see whether the company responds. If not, I foresee a large number of the company’s customers jumping ship to iiNet or other cheaper providers once the NBN hits their street.

It’s one thing, after all, for Internode’s prices to be higher than a cut-rate ISP like Exetel. But when the company is charging up to $80 more than a premium rival like iiNet … something needs to change.

update We have received the following response from Internode managing director Simon Hackett:

The NBN retail market is, at present, a ‘theoretical’ market, and it will remain so until NBNCo permit commercial signups to commence, from later this year. In the meantime, key data from NBNCo around their intended large scale network build timetable and their point-of-interconnect migration timeframes is yet to be released.

Internode announced an initial NBN retail proposition before the release of significant concessions on wholesale CVC pricing by NBNCo.

It is important to appreciate that the overwhelming majority of signups on the network are expected to commence at entry level speed and quota levels, where pricing differences between comparable providers (on a like-for-like basis) are relatively small (and are relatively independent of the CVC component of wholesale access costs).

The extent to which Internode can prudently factor in the transitional NBNCo wholesale cost concessions into changes in the high end of our retail pricing model is under consideration at this time. In the meantime, we will observe the pricing constructs released by other players in the market with interest (including the most conspicuous absentee to date, Telstra).

Image credit: Robert Linder, royalty free

57 COMMENTS

  1. Renai, we need Internode’s prices high so that Australia can understand how the NBN is an expensive white elephant. #sarcasm

    You know, if iiNet are right about wholesale pricing being similar to ADSL2+ the company whose pricing I really want to see is TPGs. If they can offer an “Unlimited” 12Mbps or 25Mbps plan then I’m really curious as to what the whole pricing debate was actually about.

    • Yup it will be fascinating to see what TPG can do … especially given they have decent backhaul costs courtesy of their PIPE Networks buy. Of course, it’s my impression that they’re not even signed up to the NBN for the early stage rollout zones, so I’m not sure when their plans will be released …

      • I was to understand they were not doing trails because they already offer GPON based services and are familiar with their operations. When do the providers not trailing begin providing services I am curious of?

        • Enjoyed your sarcasm in comment #1. But don’t forget Internode pricing was released before NBNCo agreed to waive the access fee overhead until a largeish customer base was established on the node. Internode therefore had to factor this cost into its pricing, and may now be able to reduce it. Also, by going out early, they had to give themselves room to reduce the price later rather than the reverse.

          When actual charging begins in first release sites in October we shall see what we shall see. I’d be expecting iiNet and Internode to be pretty similar, for instance. Until actual billing starts I’m treating the announced price schedules as nothing more than testing the market in the blogosphere.

      • They should be able to do real well. They will need a few more tech staff on their WP forum to ask for lines stats, to tell customers to scan for viruses, check neighbours for electrical devices that only turn on 6pm til 11pm and otherwise deflect customers from their evening congestion issues.
        If Internode want to charge that price and use to money to provide a better network fine. More choices. Why should every ISP aim to compete on price. If you pay $99 and can only ever get 16Mb/s out of your 100MB/s link is it good value?
        So many people look at price of TPG and ignore the huge elephant in the room.
        (Waits for TPG customer to post “I don’t have any problems” ignoring the huge number that do)

        • I disagree. Both in the assertion that a majority of TPG customers have a problem with performance as I have seen no evidence to suggest that they have, and any sources I can find have a strong case of selection bias, and on the assertion customers will only get one eighth of the advertised performance.

          I’ve seen the bad, but the bad is not somehow limited to TPG. What makes TPGs bad more obvious is the fact that they offer limited support on account of their value. You have to remember that.

          • FTTN is a better solution. Just spend $4Bn to build the metro network and remove all speed and data caps, this is what you get overseas.

            In addition drop the wholesale price.

            NBN just holds us back as we need to pay off the cost of building it for more than a decade.

            I hate the see the scenario arise where every provider ends up like Dodo or TPG, their business model is the ‘race to the bottom’ one, and their service is rather poor, cheap and nasty is the colloquialism for that, and why are we encouraging this?

            Put in FTTN, and drastically cut the DSL wholesale price, which we can do with a much cheaper roll out… Remove speed caps and data caps, and remove contention ratios. Make the wholesale price dirt cheap, and you make ISP’s business more competitive and you make it easier to do business and create now markets by not forcing all disposable income into paying for the ‘carriage service’ and no ‘value add’ ones.

            Finally, ive really had enough of second rate operators, they dont offer quality and the only way they get their prices cheap is trying to undercut eachother by skimping out in other areas like customer serivce and quality such as low contention, uptime and latency.

          • What the?

            FTTN can only be built by Telstra. And Then ISP’s would really have something to complain!

            A ~25% ROI.

          • First off what does this have to do with this article? This is an opinion piece on the pricing on the NBN by one particular provider. The validity and cost effectiveness of the NBN itself is hardly relevant.

            Secondly, what does this have to do with my post? Which is defending TPG and has absolutely even less to do with the validity and cost effectiveness on the NBN than the article.

            Thirdly. And I reply to this in isolation because it is the only part of your post relevant to this discussion (although I would be interested in further discussing your other points in another forum, might I suggest the Delimiter Forums?): TPG are not actually in a race to the bottom. Their no frills attitude can be annoying, but it isn’t why they are cheap. They are cheap because they have a massive advantage, in the form of PIPE dark fibre infrastructure, over their competitors, this means the operational costs to them are minimal, as they don’t need to rent fibre or bandwidth.

          • @NightKhaos
            it has everything to do with the article. Pointing out you don’t get something for nothing.
            We will have to agree to disagree. I think TPG are underprovisioned in many regions. Not everything goes through pipe.

          • Newsflash : a FTTN network will not stop companys like TPG providing low margin, no frills services.

            Also I’m sorry, did he say “Remove Contention ratios”? I missed that. I live in the real world and I assure you that is never going to happen. I’ll eat my hat the day someone provides 1:1 to residential customers as standard.

          • @NightKaos
            “FTTN network will not stop companys like TPG providing low margin, no frills services.”
            Nor should it. They have their market, they have their price point.
            But equally arguing, as this article does:
            “Internode must slash its horrible NBN pricing”
            different target customer base, different provisioning, different service levels. If a person wants a cheap ISP there are lots. To say Internode should try to compete on price when their goal is to provide the highest quality service they can is just limiting choice. There are people who a good network and good service are more important than how many TB you can download for how many dollars.

          • I think you’re missing the point: iiNet, who have traditionally been similar value as Internode in terms of pricing, are undercutting Internode by a huge amounts.

            It’s possibly that Internode plan to provide a lot more CVC back-haul to their customers, and if that is the case, that might be enough justification for the differences in prices, but for iiNet suddenly to change it’s MO to a low value provider like Exetel? Something with the pricing doesn’t add up here and the statement provided by Internode isn’t reassuring.

          • @NightKhaos
            I never said majority, I said a huge number.
            For evidence, go read their WP or TPG forums, post after post after post. Read other ISPs forums, posts for sure, but TPG must have more than every other ISP by a factor of 10.
            By the way, I did predict your post. I will not use the fb term. But sorry, I have lots of friends on many ISPs and can also read forum posts. As far as I can see if you read them and come away thinking anything other than TPG has issues and they giving the users the runaround because they know it’s underprovisioning I think you live in fantasy land.

          • Thing is, I just find a lot of people fickle in their position in regards to NBN and have abandoned their morals just to see NBN happen.

            For example, I was surprised that possibly the most despised ISP Dodo in the so called ‘geek’ community, suddenly gained accolades and were then compared to on the same level with Internode who have a long track record of being a good corporate citizen and provider.

            Just because Dodo offers cheaper NBN plans that looks like severely undercutting Internodes plans, doesnt make it to be any good, despite everything being wholesaled from NBNCo.

            The problem is that companies can run on very slim margins and market very aggressively just to get people to put the signature on contracts, which other ISPs can look at building a loyal customer base by providing good service in the long term.

            Now, we have all these people attacking Internode because they think its poor value for money, but hang on, lets look at all the plans side-by-side and figure out what kind of business model they are running, and how satisfied they expect their customers to be.

            When I saw some people praise Dodo for their ‘low’ prices, and these are regulars ive seen post here, who claim to be ‘knowledgeable’, i just think these people are so fickle that they dont remember what a terrible ISP Dodo is and that their plans are probably a sales campaign, they might even operate at a lost just get get people onto contracts!

            Then comparing TPG. Sure, TPG has its merits but they are a budget provider, and trying to get anything done by TPG is absolutely shocking, why ? Because they cut in other areas like their network quality or customer service.

            So who is really providing an honest business plan and customer plans? This has already become a ‘race-to-the-bottom’ as all the NBN supporters want to somehow make it justifiable in terms of value for money, by trying to find the provider who can sell it the cheapest, ie. comparable to ADSL2+ prices! which is not much of an improvement in value at all, considering it costs $43Bn! And finally, the race to the bottom to see how slim the margin to the ISP can be cut, so that they can say that NBN is going to be cheap! But lets see how long these providers can stay in business under the prices.

          • someyoungguy, whether there is a nbn or not, there will always be the likes of dodo, tpg, just as there is now (so we will be no worse off because of them with the nbn). also everyone (apart from the complete novice who will likely stick with biggies anyway) should know what they are getting/not getting when they sign up on a budget plan.

            that’s the whole idea of choice.

            go budget receive a budget service. go premium, receive a premium service. some gurus’s might want no support, just a plan, whereas the novice will pay more for 24/7 phone support. it’s simply choice, not a bad thing!

            value is in the eye of the beholder. value certainly doesn’t simply (necessarily) equate to the cheapest!

            what is actually starting to occur is, people are comparing apples with apples. instead of the perpetual naysayers simply comparing the most expensive “first cab of the rank’ internode nbn plan they could find, to the cheapest tpg or dodo adsl plan (available to major cities only) and screaming too expensive, it’s now becoming apples/apples and the nbn is looking pretty darn good to most.

            lets face it we deal in majorities in a democracy, so if the majority are better off, well…

            so really your entire comment is a moot point, from my perspective, because there’s no race to the bottom simply choice and I can imagine telstra will be offering the other end of the spectrum to dodo.

            but regardless, it seems we are already seeing the competitive forces having the desired effect. so, so much for big bad nbn monopoly, no choice and not affordable eh?

            but granted, it’s still early days, not crowing just yet, but looking good in my opinion..

          • @Someyoungguy
            Dodo have put forth a major effort to completely revamp their image and performance.
            That is to be applauded!
            Many people made the move to Dodo because of this and because Simon screwed up in the latest pricing changes (a very bad thing for a business to do).

            There is no Dodo = Bad, and Internode = Good to be had…they are both just businesses.

  2. I think we’re going to see some movement from all ISPs, both up & down, in the first 12 months or so.

  3. NBNCo are predicting that 50% will connect at 12/1Mbps (page 118 of NBNCo Corporate Plan). This doesn’t tally with your statement that ‘ the mid-level customer category, where we anticipate most customers will sit in the short-term’.

    • And the NBNCo Business case is gospel is it? Further if you actually read Renai’s post in detail you would note that he was talking about mid-level quota, not information rate.

      • Don’t worry about Mathew, he’s a troll on WP forums.

        He don’t care about the plans themselves, just the stats.

      • The NBNCo Business Plan is the best guide we have to the NBN.

        I think most people reading this will opt for 25/5Mbps or faster and some will opt for 100/40Mbps. What I struggle with is people choosing 12/1Mbps and large quotas, when for $5 more they can double the speed.

        This suggests a significant percentage of the 50% connecting at 12/1Mbps will be choosing the cheapest plan. If all they want is a basic internet connection for facebook and a bit of browsing, then wireless could be adequate. NBNCo are predicting that only 70% of premises passed by fibre will connect and 13% of premises passed by fibre will opt to be wireless only. Every person who connects wireless only pushes up the price of the NBN for the rest of us.

        • What I struggle with is people choosing 12/1Mbps and large quotas, when for $5 more they can double the speed.

          What are you struggling with? The plans aren’t even available yet, who is choosing what and when they do choose do you think all customers wont realise that they can get a better service for just $5 more?

          This suggests a significant percentage of the 50% connecting at 12/1Mbps will be choosing the cheapest plan.

          It suggests 50% (and more) will be choosing 25mbps or higher plans after 2017. 12/1mbps might be the most popular plan but that doesn’t tell the whole story considering there will be 5 speeds to choose from and 4 of them will be faster than 12mbps. More people will be on 25mbps and higher plans than 12mbps plans (That is what NBNco are predicting)

        • Problem with wireless, is most people don’t know how to share it.

          I already know 1 household that didn’t get an internet connection, and they had to buy 2 3g sticks.

          Why 2? well, they started with one, but they found they both needed access simultaneously too often.

          If they were a techie, they’d setup wifi sharing, or get a wifi modem with a 3g adapter, or USB that allows a 3g adapter, or even one of those pocket wifi adapters. Thing is, they weren’t techies. They bought the 3g stick that was cheapest, and don’t know how to use their computer.

          This same value judgement will be made by everyone, 2+ 3g/4g usb sticks (total cost 80 dollars plus) or one NBN plan at 60 dollars. And it is faster, more reliable, lower latency with higher quota to boot.

    • NBNCo are predicting that 50% will connect at 12/1Mbps (page 118 of NBNCo Corporate Plan).

      False (Perhaps you should learn how to read graphs correctly) NBNCo are predicting 64% will connect at 25/10mbps and HIGHER. The >50% number only goes up to 2017. I noticed you omitted that piece of information, I cant imagine why but regardless there still would be 50% on 25/10mbps or higher. If you really insist on quoting the NBNCo Corporate plan at least get it right.

      • The further out the predictions go the less reliable they are.
        36% on fibre connecting at 12/1Mbps in 2028 is still a shockingly huge number

        • The further out the predictions go the less reliable they are.

          Makes you wonder one would even bother quoting them then…

          36% on fibre connecting at 12/1Mbps in 2028 is still a shockingly huge number

          64% on fibre connecting at 25/10mbps is still an even bigger and amazingly huge number (Hint: That is the majority)

          • Keeping in mind the NBN Special Access Undertaking to be submitted to the ACCC for approval states that the NBN faces ‘demand uncertainty’, any figures therefore are pulled out of the proverbial magicians hat with the white rabbit.

          • Imagine that “demand uncertainty”. yep we all know the NBNCo Corporate plan are estimates, nothing is certain but alian here felt the need to state the obvious yet again… news at 11 material I’m sure.

    • And this predicition is based on a very outdated Corporate Plan that is due to be completely revamped soon, so it’s pretty worthless now.

  4. WTF? Internode were the first cab off the rank, and the rest that followed undercut them. Man, that was unpredictable, wasn’t it? Since Internode released their pricing a number of things have changed, including NBN dropping some costs for ISP’s. So, Internode didn’t immediately jump the gun and revise their prices in a hurry? Big deal. I’d be surprised if they don’t readjust, but I’m willing to bet that they will do so when they’re ready, and not as a response to paranoid calls for action.

    • From the article:

      Internode didn’t blink when the rebate was released — stating it wouldn’t cut its prices as the rebate wouldn’t reduce the long-term cost to ISPs participating in the NBN; as it only applies until 30,000 premises are passed in an area connected to one of the NBN’s 121 points of interconnect.

      Renai’s criticism here is well justified. Harsh maybe, considering he has yet to get comment from Internode on the issue, but not without merit. Internode have always been a premium provider, but twice as much for exactly the same quota and information rate? I’m a fan of not having off-peak, on-peak pricing, but even that doesn’t justify this pricing gap.

      I think you’re confusing the idea of undercutting, a valid an expected practice from competition, with the fact that Internode’s prices are not in line with the market. The same concept applies to Macs vs PCs. Everyone criticises Macs for being ridiculously over priced. The difference is, Internode aren’t offering any significant value proposition over iiNet.

  5. Internode has brainwashed people into thinking they’re getting access to a better network and better support for years now. The fact is that many have reported on Whirlpool that Node support isn’t that great. People that have churned due to increasing prices report that their connection is no different with their new ISP.

    Personally, I think Node’s place in the industry is under threat. Look what happened to Netspace and WestNet.

    • I disagree, Internode has a place in the market, they just need to get their head out of the clouds and realise that what they are currently offering isn’t all that great. Internode is big enough to come out the other end of this will a better brand image without falling, but they need to start taking corrective action now.

    • Exactly

      I wont be surprised at all if internode does what is it known for, blaming their wholesaler
      first it was telstra and optus, now it will be the nbn on losing profits

    • I don’t believe I’ve been brainwashed xD but due to the geographic locations I exchange data with I didn’t want ALL my international traffic being routed through Sydney – so I didn’t sign with iiNet.

      I fail to see any logical reason for Internode’s pricing to come under such fire. It’s really easy to avoid if you don’t like it – just sign up with just about any other ISP!

      As for those of us who actually need the extras that Internode provides – what harm do we do to all the haters writing these comments? Can’t we all live happily together paying for our preferred ISP without having to be called “brainwashed” and without people yelling at Internode to completely change their business practices to focus purely on $/GB?

    • “Internode has brainwashed people into thinking they’re getting access to a better network and better support for years now.”

      Reality check: Internode does have a better network and better support than almost every other ISP out there.

  6. Face it Internode is almost dead as soon as the NBN completely rolls out they will be known as Interwho?

    Or Internoone

    • More spin than Shane Warne. He should have been a politician. It’s like a Seinfeld episode – four paragraphs of nothing about nothing!

      • I should add to my post above…if “The NBN retail market is, at present, a ‘theoretical’ market”, why was Node the first to jump in and release plans? First in to release plans unnecessarily, and the first to generate excuses when better deals emerge. Lead, follow, or get out of the way, I say.

  7. The funny thing is, the majority of Internodes customer base isn’t the entry level users, it’s the mid-high quota users who will want the extra speed. If they don’t drop their prices after their recent cash grab (they stated the majority of users on the 150GB naked plan used most of their quota, so up went the price to those out of contract) then there will be even more people jumping ship. iiNet is not seen as the big bad, or the big cheap, so if Node don’t come to the party on pricing, they can kiss goodbye to loyal customers. $10/mo extra for their network and CS, sure, but double? they have got to be kidding

    • Laura,

      Do you know who has the most customers? Not surprising its Telstra, then Optus. Is that a surprise? Well no. But then again, it may be a surprise that they are also the MOST EXPENSIVE.

      Why is it that despite TPG and its mass advertising and very cheap and value for money, that it doesnt do that great?

      Maybe its because that people arent as obsessed with the “Internet” as people believe. That smaller ISPs will always find a niche market, as the big 2 tend to sponsor large events like AFL, NRL, Commonwealth Games, etc. etc.

      People go with a name they know and trust, this is true for all products and something that never really changes, despite what people like to believe.

      For this reason, small ISPs that want to work on SLIM margins thinking that cheap is best, often find its proven wrong and go bust.

      I dont know what the good price for NBN Should be, but IMO, given its high wholesale price, it wouldnt be too great, considering that users on ADSL2+ already are getting in many cases the most economic deal from this well established technology.

      I think people here need to get a reality check in terms of pricing, you cant spend $43Bn and expect the product to be cheap.

      • Telstra the most expensive? Certainly not more expensive that Internode.

        Telsta 200Gb with bundled phone $88. Internode 100Gbs $89.95

  8. Renai, not so sure about you jumping the gun here. It’s just putting across an ever growing opinion that you aren’t exactly a fan of Internode. You don’t have to be, but as a decent objective journalist, you should be remaining impartial, and stating upfront that they didn’t have time to respond yet. You should also be referencing their explanatory statement for these prices. You well knew why these prices were high: due to CVC charges.

    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1777986&p=2#r39

    • Actually Internode is pretty much my favourite ISP … I like the company’s management personally, as well as its technical ability, approach in rolling out its own networks, transparency and disclosure and so on. I’m actually thinking of switching from iiNet (I’m a long-time customer) to the ‘Node at the end of this year when the holiday break kicks in.

      However, I do think the company has made a few mistakes recently, and I think right now it’s struggling with how to take itself to the next level.

      As an example of how I feel about the company …

      http://delimiter.com.au/2011/07/16/reality-check-internode-is-not-price-gouging/

      I guess what I am trying to help people to understand here is that Internode’s not the enemy. Over the last two decades, the company has done its utmost to be fair to customers with its Internet plans, and it’s still doing the same. Would you see the chief executive of Telstra, Optus or TPG go public in an extremely detailed blog post to discuss the rationale behind new broadband plan changes? No.

      Does any other ISP have the level of granular plans that Internode does, to offer its customers as many options as possible, depending what infrastructure they’re on? No. Does any other ISP provide as much transparency around its relationships with suppliers? No.

      However, ultimately in my role as a commentator I will probably come down harshly upon everyone at some stage. Internode has been a bit in the firing line recently, but then it does pop its head up a fair bit more than, say, TPG does.

      • “transparency and disclosure”

        What you see outside the company is half the story. Just public or whirlpool crowd are not told everything or don’t need to know

  9. I disagree with the article, I’m not a node fanboy – infact I am a TPG customer, kinda polar opposite – but Internode are still top of the list for my choice when the NBN comes to my place

    Not everyone is only interested in huge quotas, the Internode network is worth it to me.

  10. Doesn’t iinet’s pricing completely demolish Linton’s argument? If the same performance is to be expected on every ISP’s network, there would be no need for off-peak / on-peak. That distiction is made so an ISP can have less capacity but appear to offer the same amount of data.

    • Linton’s argument and usage periods aren’t really related. Peak bandwidth is usually all an ISP Cares about. Those who offer off peak quota are providing an incentive to user to be more efficient with their usage which can also offset peak bandwidth requirements. It’s win win, but users generally should consider it a bonus that should not be counted as primary quota unless they have a specific use for it.

  11. I predict that Telstra comes out with the cheapest deals, if TPG dont beat them to the punch – would make up for being the cherry pickled scapegoat. ;-)

  12. This being done because Simon plans always intend to be simple and consistent prices for the customer

    Meaning you go from ADSL to NBN. The price will stay the same always
    However ADSL is the new dialup with the NBN. So charging prices inline with fibre doesn’t make sense to the customer

    The Benefit for Internode is more profit and allowing the company to grow. There always followed a Agile company meaning they will always experiment with different plans/prices to try them out,

    My reaction to the plan changes at the beginning of this year was surprise and eventually knew of a bait/switch event. By offer a ridiculous cheap plan and bump the price up 6 months later but use NBN and Telstra as the reason for the price increase.

    The current problem for Internode is cash flow to grow has slowed. Back in 2009/08 the company was predicting to have 1100 staff members and because the company is being “Loved to death” by Internet loving customers this hasn’t occurred.

  13. It seems to me that Internode was trying to rip us off and is now backtracking. Very uncool.

  14. someyoungguy:
    “FTTN is a better solution. Just spend $4Bn to build the metro network and remove all speed and data caps, this is what you get overseas.”

    Where do you get the $4bn from?
    Telstra wanted that much quite a few years ago.
    In return they wanted complete deregulation of the elco industry so they could charge what they want, a guaranteed monopoly so nobody else coud compete and 1/2 the 12mb reserved for their exclusive use (for stuff like cable tv) with the other 6mb for the customer.

    With a deal like that, I can’t help wondering why they didn’t offer to do it for free.

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