Offering broadband flexibility for Australian businesses
To better understand what these needs are, we’ve been undertaking extensive research with Australian businesses as well as our retail providers to identify the factors that are most important when it comes to broadband services. Based on the feedback we’ve received, the priorities are clear.
Australian businesses want a greater emphasis on enhanced service levels to ensure minimal downtime, higher speed tiers to run data-intensive applications and dedicated bandwidth to provide a consistent level of service for all ends of the market, from small sole traders through to large corporations.
With this in mind, today we’re pleased to announce our plans to launch new wholesale business-grade discount bundles designed to cater to Australian businesses, no matter the size.
Under our new ‘business nbn™’ banner, we will for the first time combine access to high speeds, committed bandwidth and premium service levels in a discounted monthly 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**.
Beyond the need for speed
It’s not just about championing higher-speed wholesale plans, either. These bundles all include a 12-hour enhanced service-level agreement with 24/7 between NBN Co and the retailer, and a committed amount of bandwidth which incrementally increases with the higher speed tiers.
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^.
While NBN Co does not set retail prices, all of this is designed to encourage retail service providers to provide an improved service experience for business customers, by way of increased application performance and improvements in right-the-first-time installations on the nbn™ access network.
We are currently working with industry to implement the discounts, with the aim of releasing them on our Fixed Line network to service providers from early 2019.
Working with the business experts: you
In this era of digital transformation, it is critical the nbn™ access network keeps pace with the connected-device and data demands of Australian businesses. We also understand how important it is to support businesses who are helping to usher in these changes.
As part of our commitment to improving the customer experience for businesses, NBN Co recently launched a new Business Operations Centre (BOC) in Melbourne’s Docklands. This dedicated team of service experts are here to work with retailers to help to streamline business connections to the nbn™ access network and provide specialised technical advice.
Business-focused services like our BOC allow us to offer enhanced service levels to Australian businesses, which, in turn, help us support retail providers to deliver a better outcome for their business customers. This translates to smoother business operations and ensures that disruptions are kept to a minimum.
On top of this, we’re making improvements to our business product portfolio to ensure we’re able to support retailers to meet all ends of the market.
This includes the recent launch of our nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet product, which saw us further our commitment to supporting retail services for large enterprise and government organisations by delivering wholesale symmetrical speeds of up to 1Gbps and enhanced service support.
Future business
These new wholesale discount bundles are just one of the ways NBN Co is championing Australian businesses and you’ll continue to hear from us on future updates.
We’re currently working hard to reduce the tyranny of distance for rural and remote businesses, with the launch of the wholesale nbn™ Business Satellite Service which we plan to launch in 2019. This wholesale service is designed to support cloud-based services and video conferencing for farmers and industries with rural operations in the oil, mining and gas sector.
With more than half a million Australian businesses already taking advantage of the benefits of the nbn™ access network, and an extra 20,000 businesses added to our network footprint each month, we’re well on track to completing the network rollout for all Australians by June 2020.
*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).
** Bandwidth profiles with committed symmetrical wholesale speeds of 50/50Mbps are only available on certain access technologies. End User experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn™ access network some factors outside NBN Co’s control (like End User equipment quality, software, broadband plans and how the retail service provider designs its network).
^A new line install is offered on selected 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.