NBN Co today announced plans to introduce new wholesale discount bundles over the fixed line nbn™ access network to help improve customer experience and better meet the demands of Australian businesses.

Under its new ‘business nbn™’ banner, the company will for the first time combine access to high speeds, committed bandwidth and premium service levels in a discounted charge in a move designed to deliver significant savings for retail providers.

The wholesale discount bundles will include:

• Wholesale speeds of 50/20Mbps^* optimised for smaller businesses;
• Wholesale speeds of 100/40Mbps^* with support for multiple phone lines for medium-sized businesses;
• Wholesale symmetrical committed speeds of 20/20Mbps and a 100/40Mbps peak information rate^**; and
• Wholesale symmetrical committed speeds of 50/50Mbps and a 250/100Mbps peak information rate for data-intensive and multi-site organisations^**.

Each of the discount bundles will include a minimum 12 hour enhanced service level agreement with 24/7 support between NBN Co and retailer as well as bandwidth which incrementally increases with higher bundles.

To help increase service continuity and reduce interruption for businesses, selected wholesale discount bundles will also include the option to install a subsequent line to test critical applications before connecting to the nbn™ access network^{^}.

The company is currently working with industry to implement the discounts, with the aim of releasing them on its fixed line network to service providers from early 2019.

Today’s announcement comes as NBN Co reaches half a million businesses on the nbn™ access network and represents another step in a series of customer experience measures. In August 2018, the company launched a new Business Operations Centre to help provide specialist technical support and recently began a trial of premium business-grade appointments to help increase certainty of appointment times and reduce disruption to day-to-day operations.

NBN Co’s Chief Customer Officer for Business, Paul Tyler said:

“We’ve undertaken extensive research with Australian businesses and our service providers which reveals increased service assurance, high speeds and committed bandwidth are the most important factors for businesses connecting to the nbn™ access network.

“We recognise some businesses are on nbn™ powered plans that have not been optimised for their needs. Businesses should speak to their service provider about whether they require high-speeds for cloud applications, committed and symmetrical information rates for audio and video conferencing or increased service assurance for business-critical applications.

“NBN Co does not set retail prices, however our new wholesale discount bundles are designed to incentivise retailers to offer these business-grade services to improve customer experience on the network.

“We’re committed to continually working with the industry to invest in our wholesale product and service suite such as our business-grade satellite service, which is due to launch in 2019 and designed to benefit regional and rural organisations.”

Council of Small Businesses of Australia Chief Executive Officer, Peter Strong said:

“We are pleased to see an emphasis on enhanced service levels to ensure NBN Co and retailers can work together to provide businesses with the support they require.

“Businesses should ensure they educate themselves about what is available to support their needs and we hope that this new initiative will open up the forum for greater discussion around the correct package for usage needs between businesses and their retailer.”

Telsyte’s Managing Director, Foad Fadaghi said:

“Australian businesses are seeing an explosion of devices connected to the internet in their workplaces which means reliable, pervasive and high-speed connectivity is crucial to support this growth.”

“Our new Emerging Enterprise Technology Study reveals Australian businesses on the nbn™ access network are expecting to see the number of connected devices on their network increase up to nine times in the next five years so flexible broadband products will help to better meet these needs.”

Example use cases for the wholesale discount bundles:

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Notes to editors:

• *References to 50/20Mbps and 100/40Mbps include 25-50/5-20 Mbps and 25-100/5-40 Mbps bandwidth profiles on some access technologies. End User experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn™ access network, depends on the nbn™ access technology and configuration over which services are delivered to an End User premises, whether the End User is using the internet during the busy period, and some factors outside NBN Co’s control (like End User equipment quality, software, broadband plans, signal reception and how the retail service provider designs its network).
• **The peak information rate of each service will depend on the AVC TC-4 bandwidth profile purchased by the retail service provider. The AVC TC-4 bandwidth profile will not be included as part of the new business-grade wholesale discount bundles, but may be separately eligible for a High Bandwidth Bundles Discount.
• ^A subsequent installation discount is offered on selected business bundles when migrating from an existing copper network to NBN Co’s FTTB, FTTN or FTTC access technologies.
• Additional wholesale discount bundles will also be available in respect of each of NBN Co’s other bandwidth profiles.
• NBN Co is a wholesale provider and does not set retail prices. Phone and internet providers will decide the retail price of the plans, which will not be available on the nbn™ Fixed Wireless or Satellite networks.
• NBN Co will make the wholesale discounts available to all phone and internet providers that have signed the Wholesale Broadband Agreement and comply with the terms of the discounts (which will be set out in the Discounts, Credits and Rebates List on launch).
• NBN Co is currently consulting with industry on the new wholesale bundle discounts and plans to release the discounts on its fixed line access network to phone and internet providers from early 2019 for an initial period of 12 months.