Internode revamps estates fibre plans

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news National broadband provider Internode has released a new series of plans for residents of new housing estates which have their fibre infrastructure operated by independent fibre specialists Opticomm and OPENetworks, harmonising the plans with its existing National Broadband Network pricing.

“I’ve just updated the website with the new greenfields broadband plans,” wrote Internode product manager Jim Kellett yesterday in a post on broadband forum Whirlpool. “In summary, [fibre to the home] broadband via OptiConmm & OPENetworks is now aligned with FTTH broadband via NBN; in terms of speed, price, quota & option packs. New FTTH customers can select any of the new plans from today; and existing FTTH customers can request a new plan via the online planchanger.”

The new plans mean that for the first time, broadband users in these so-called greenfield developments will be able to access plans with terabyte download quotas. Internode’s plans kick off at $49.95 per month for a 12Mbps plan with 30GB of quota, and top out at $164.95 per month for a 100Mbps plan with a terabyte of quota.


The news comes just days after the Federal Government announced a deal with Telstra that will see the company open up its own fibre infrastructure in a number of new estates around Australia to competitive wholesale access, in return for being exempted from certain regulatory requirements which would require the company to offer fibre to other ISPs on similar terms to those of the National Broadband Network Company.

Also on Whirlpool yesterday, Internode managing director Simon Hackett said the Telstra estates weren’t included in the pricing changes for “the obvious reasons”.

“Telstra Wholesale have their own idea of wholesale FTTH access prices, and, long story short, it seems that in terms of those access prices, Telstra Wholesale live on Mars and everyone else (including BigPond) lives on Venus,” Hackett wrote. “Telstra have, according to media reports, decided to open up wholesale access to Velocity estates around Australia from sometime in April/May, but wholesale access pricing and any other technical or contractual details are yet to be announced.”

“Telstra have convinced the government to exempt that to-be-announced wholesale FTTH access pricing from the very laws the government passed in order to ensure that such wholesale FTTH pricing wasn’t able to be excessive in the NBN era … Go figure :(”

Internode’s NBN pricing — which was last updated in September last year — was believed at that time to have been modified to more strongly target mid-range customers. The company’s plans also, however, do offer lower prices than cut-rate provider Exetel in some areas — although at the top-end, it appears as though the prices offered by Internode parent iiNet are still dramatically cheaper, especially if you’re buying a plan with a terabyte quota. iTNews has reported that iiNet is also planning to launch new fibre estates pricing shortly.

Image credit: Clix, royalty free

5 COMMENTS

  1. what is stupid internet filter minister thinking/? nbn laws was design to give nbnco fixed monopoly and discourage other players from building fibre network. with no increase in exemption from anti cherripick laws, telstra will not extend old velocity fttp estate beyond 1kilometer exemption as said in nbn laws. this is good. let nbnco build all the new fibre network. is it not bad enough telstra owns a lot of fibre netowrk not build or own by nbnco? why give telstra chance or carrot to extend fibre estate beyond 1kn of current velocity over next 12-8 months? let closeby resident estate wait for nbnco do build, not long at all, short wait, nbnco say nbn complete wihtin as quick as 10 years. 10,000 houses connect a day, already guinneas world record speed. this is stupid bad judgement by conroy minister (in future, telstra will ask for “compensation” when government want to take velocity from telstra hands. more velocity estate = more taxpayer compensation for greedy telstra)

    also conroy has no logical understanding. hacket is completely correct on facts. if telstra already own 100 velocity estate operating for many years and build 5 new fttp network over next 12mnths, ask yourself – should 5 new estate be benchmark to old 100 veloicty estate already in operation or new nbnco world class benchmark standard which is already established and endorse by government and ACCC/?

    of course the logical action decision by minister is to force telstra to spend money and device complete new IT, administration, mgmt systems to catch up to nbnco standard (including multicast IP) and revampe existing 100 velocity estates to become like 5 new velocity (or long establish nbn standard). instead the mnister is allowing telstra to do it the other way around. 5 new fttp estate is allowed to operate technically and bsuiness model same as existing 100 or 200 velocity estate. how stupid! i wish filter-lover conroy had so much commonsense as simond hacket. conroy has no understanding how smart business think/do in commercial world – of course make old 200 like new 5, not make new 5 like old 200. this is called progress

    two big mistake by conroy. first – let telstra extend velocity fttp to more residents over shortterm when nbnco will be rolling fibre at full speed over 10 years. second – let telstra extend current technical system and business model for old velocity to new velocity instead of forcing to spending money on brand new systems and complete changing business model to nbnco model. always easy way out for telstra = lower cost of buiding new velocity (no transformation cost risk for old or new velocity) = more $$$$ bottomline for greedy telstra. minister is so stupid. just listen more to hacket. must make things hard as possible for greedy monopolist to teach great lesson. instead what minister do is conspiracy against australian people

    also internode fibre prices very interesting. see for each quota amount, difference between lowest speed and 100mbps is about 25dollars. this means consumer value from accessing faster fibre speed is as high as 25dollar gain. but for each speed (12mbps to 100mbps), difference between lowest data and highest 1TB is 90dollar consumer valuation gain . what does this tell you? consumer prefer higher speed to higher download data (90 v 25 means consumer value higher speed three time more benefit than higher download) this is why we need the nbn. internode price prooves we need faster fibre speed. lousy patchwork fttn is a half-way job done with no full beneift from higher speed. also see in table cheapest 1TB plan is only 140dollars. compare to cheapest 1TB or unlimited now. no comparison! how many poeple can afford 1TB now? only turnbull’ idiots argue against benefits of nbn. internode pricing show all consumers will be better off under nbnco

    minister conroy need new advisers, maybe hire hacket is good ideal

  2. hacket is also right telstra need to leave mars and come back to venus to join other fibre network builders and isps best practices. opticcomm and opennetworks sell cheaper fibre wholesale to isps because a lot of fibre development cost is pass on or absorb directly by total property development cost budget. so opticomm have smaller cost to recover back during operation. when telstra rollout fibre in southern brisbane, telstra managers make very stupid decision to not tax each brownfield house pass by new fibre by a few thousand dollars per capita/head immediately to recover cost upfront. this way, afterwards have smaller cost to recover when network is operational and isps wont complain about expensive wholesale. this is what internode would do obviously if hacket was building fibre in brownfiled like southern brisbane. but hacket is a business genius and have plenty of commonsense not like stupid, greedy money-crazed Hell$stra. australian people and conroy/gillard should listen more to hacket and read internode blog to learn good business principals how to build/operate fibre, hacket is recognized expert with experience

    • Seriously? Alright. I give up. Clearly you’re very good at spinning your own reality here. I won’t let facts, feasibly or the unjustified vendetta you have against Telstra get in the way of your opinions. What was I thinking?

  3. why is south brisbane still getting ripped off? i am in this area and feel completely lost and helpless…
    i am with optus at the moment and have to change service providers just to upgrade…
    and they’re all ridiculous prices…

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