Residents and businesses participating in the first five mainland trials of the National Broadband Network (NBN) will have access to commercial services over the network following the completion of the trials.
The sites, which comprise Brunswick in Melbourne, Townsville in Queensland, Willunga in South Australia, Armidale and the neighbouring Minnamurra and Kiama areas in NSW, will have access to phone and internet services over the network via the participating RSPs.
NBN Co Head of Product Development and Sales, Jim Hassell, said the launch was a significant milestone for the network wholesaler as it begins to generate its first revenue from the fibre services.
“The one NBN connection is capable of supporting both a voice and a broadband service so users don’t need to pay for separate phone line rental and broadband services,” Hassell said in a statement.
To date a raft of ISPs, including Internode, iPrimus, Exetel and iiNet, have released pricing for mainland NBN services.
“Some of the NBN service plans so far released by service providers include free local and national calls for a flat monthly fee, making the telephone component of an NBN service very attractive. Others offer quite low prices for untimed local and national calls as part of their monthly access charge.”
“Consumers need to consider their existing telephone and broadband contract arrangements before looking to switch services,” Hassell said. “Also people living in rented accommodation and/or apartment blocks will need to consider their lease conditions and what approval is needed from bodies corporate and/or landlords.”
The 19 second release mainland sites are still under construction and following completion will skip the trial and go straight to ready for service.
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