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Aussie Broadband welcomes new nbn™ pricing but raises concerns about Fixed Wireless customers

Media Release | Monday 18 Dec 2017 | 1 min read

Last week (14/12/17) nbn™ released their planned changes to the wholesale pricing structure for feedback from the industry.

Phillip Britt, Managing Director of Aussie Broadband, has welcomed the review but has significant concerns regarding some elements.

“Aussie Broadband has been advocating for nbn™ to review its current pricing structure for some time due to the extremely high cost of CVC, which discourages providers from supplying high quality nbn™ products.”

“In particular, Aussie Broadband welcomes the concept of wholesale bundled offers which includes a certain amount of CVC per user at a lower cost than the current pricing, as well as lowering the price of additional bandwidth for these bundled products.”

“We believe these elements will assist in encouraging providers to provision adequate CVC to customers, as well as levelling the playing field between large and small RSPs.”

This being said, Phil has significant concerns about parts of the latest proposal, particularly for customers using the nbn™ fixed wireless network.

According to nbn™ these connections will be excluded from the temporary pricing offer available from December, as well as the permanent pricing structure available from next year.

This marks a departure from the current model where all access types follow identical pricing (with the exception of satellite).

“Aussie Broadband believes fixed wireless has been specifically excluded from the new pricing structure due to prolonged tower congestion in some areas of the nbn™ fixed wireless network, which would negate any increases in speed that would be offered by the new pricing.

As a result, rural and regional Australians in nbn™ fixed wireless areas will most likely be paying more for a lower-quality service when compared to their city counterparts.”

Phil continues “We are disappointed nbn™ has not yet publicly acknowledged the issues with its fixed wireless network, despite complaints from providers such as ourselves for over 12 months.”

“Aussie Broadband would like the nbn™ to commit to fixing the fixed wireless network in the same way as it recently committed to fixing the HFC network in metro areas, including implementing a stop-sell on congested fixed wireless towers if necessary.”

“Fixed Wireless should be included in the new pricing structure along with the other access types to ensure the current digital divide between metro and regional areas is narrowed, not widened, by the nbn™ rollout”.

“Aussie Broadband will continue to advocate for rural and regional nbn™ users across Australia to have equal access to fast and reliable internet services”.

All information contained in this media release, including references to costs, speed, and capability of the Aussie Broadband network, was correct at time of publication, and may have since changed.

Media Enquiries

Alex Walker | Media Advisor

media@team.aussiebroadband.com.au

+61 448 110 962

About Aussie Broadband Limited

Aussie Broadband Group is a fast-growing technology services provider – comprising of the Aussie Broadband and Symbio businesses – with a market cap of around $1 billion (AUD).

Listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX: ABB), the Group collectively supplies more than 1 million services, operates two Tier 1 voice providers in Australia and owns fibre infrastructure.

The fifth largest provider of broadband services in Australia with continuing growth in the residential segment, the Group provides a broad suite of solutions through its data, voice, and managed solutions to business, enterprise and government customers. Aussie Broadband Group also provides wholesale services to other telecommunications companies and managed service providers.

For further information please visit: www.aussiebroadband.com.au