Today, the NBN gears up for Australian businesses

If you're running a business, you probably have higher expectations of your business internet and phone services than you have for your home services.

You might need a number of phone lines, for example, so customers can reach you easily while your staff make outbound calls at the same time.

And if something goes wrong with your internet or phone, you probably want your provider to fix the problem quickly, rather than putting you at the back of the queue.

That's why we've launched NBN for Business - a range of enhancements to the NBN fibre optic network that will allow ISPs and telephone companies to offer services that meet these needs.

NBN for Business allows ISPs to tailor internet plans with up to 50 business-grade voice services running over a single NBN fibre connection, alongside superfast broadband internet for your business computers.

What this means is you could have up to 50 voice calls going at once, while other staff could still make video calls, computers could be backing up to the cloud, and people out in the field could be connecting in to the company network and working from their laptop. All this over a single NBN fibre service.

The technically minded might be interested to know that phone calls placed on NBN for Business-enabled services are given maximum priority throughout every part of our network, which assures sound quality and reliability, unlike some internet telephony services designed for home use where quality of service hasn't been baked in.

NBN for Business also includes seven-day-a-week support services for internet and telephone companies, so they have the ability to provide you with improved response times if any problems arise.

The opportunities for Australian businesses out of NBN for Business are huge. We know from research conducted by Optus that around half of all small to medium businesses (SMBs) don't have a web presence nor take advantage of cloud services like hosted email or data servers.

With an NBN for Business service, SMBs in our fibre footprint - targeted to reach up to 93% of the Australian population, with a minimum obligation of 90% - could start experiencing the kinds of connectivity and IT features that large corporations have, without some of the traditional high costs associated.

The payoff of high-speed broadband over the NBN is expected to be significant for the Australian economy.

KPMG estimates that cloud computing over the NBN could increase the size of the Australian economy by $3.32 billion per annum within a decade, while Deloitte Access Economics estimates that the direct contribution of the   internet to the Australian economy will be over $70 billion a year by 2016.

In fact, Access Economics says if just 10 percent of Australian employees were to telework every second day, total annual productivity gains would be in the order of $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion per year by reducing commute times, office space and staff turnover

Internode, iiNet, M2/iPrimus and Macquarie Telecom are some of the first internet and telephone providers to confirm they'll be offering NBN for Business-enabled services.

Find out more about NBN for Business at nbnco.com.au/business. It's just the first in a range of exciting enhancements to the NBN fibre optic network coming up -- stay tuned.