New Connections - June 2012

NBN Co has more than 85 customers trialling the fixed wireless service over the NBN. Plus we have more than 1,800 homes and businesses in areas around Armidale, Toowoomba, Tamworth and Ballarat now able to order a service from participating telephone or internet service providers as part of the current trial.

This follows the completion of two months of intensive network and business-readiness testing by NBN Co and service providers to ensure the network was able to deliver robust, high speed broadband to a set number of premises in each coverage area.

Unlike mobile phone networks, where speeds experienced by end-users can be affected by the number of people moving into and out of the area, the NBN fixed-wireless service is engineered to deliver high-speed broadband to a set number of premises in a coverage footprint.

"What this means is end users will experience greater consistency in the speed and quality of service than mobile broadband services can deliver," Jim Hassell, Head of Product Development and Industry Relations said.

These communities are among the first in Australia to be able to order and connect to a service provided over the NBN fixed wireless network. Our high speed, reliable broadband service can help make keeping in touch with family and friends and access to educational content easier plus opens up entertainment opportunities.

Over the coming months, NBN Co plans to expand the fixed wireless coverage in these areas as well as to the new site of Geraldton, WA.

Find out more about the fixed wireless service.

NBN Co has launched multilingual versions of our getting connected brochure and fibre user guide. We recognise that for many Australians, English is not the primary language spoken at home. We want to make sure everyone understands how they can get connected to the NBN as well as how to use the NBN Co equipment. The documents have been translated into the following nine languages:

• Arabic
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Greek
• Hindi
• Italian
• Khmer
• Spanish
• Vietnamese.

These languages where chosen as they are the seven most common languages spoken at home according to the ABS 2006 statistics, plus we included Khmer and Hindi. The getting connected brochure and fibre user guide are the first documents to be translated, with other important documents and videos to follow as required.

View our multilingual documents.

The contract development process (CDP) has progressed well in recent months. The CDP is the mechanism to evolve the short term Wholesale Broadband Agreement (WBA) to better reflect NBN supply arrangements building on customer and NBN Co experience during the short term WBA. We are working with our customers to discuss changes to be made for the next version of the WBA, and this process will continue for the next few months.

The major discussions to date have been around regulatory recourse, service levels, and financial management and billing. To progress these work streams we have held bilateral meetings and multilateral workshops, and received feedback from customers in response to our discussion papers. The schedule for the next month promises to be very busy - discussions are planned on agreement management, liabilities and indemnities, intellectual property rights and confidentiality, and product lifecycle, in addition to the existing work streams.

We look forward to continue to work with our customers to develop the next version of the WBA by the end of this year. Please contact your NBN Co account manager for more information about the CDP and about how you can get involved.

NBN Live showcases applications that could benefit from services provided over the National Broadband Network. In this month's NBN Live we look at NICTA's Digital Productivity Showcase which aims to bridge the gap between research, local software companies and end-users of digital productivity tools.

Read this month's NBN live article

Market Perspectives shares the latest trends and insights from around the world. In the June edition, we look at understanding the Sandvine Global Internet Phenomena report (1H 2012).

Read this month's Market perspectives report.

Our June ready for service plan is now available for download. The ready for service rollout plan is released each month, covering the rollout regions that have entered design and construction within the fibre and fixed wireless footprints.

Read more about our June ready for service plan.