NBN Co has responded to feedback from internet retailers by bringing forward discussions on 2 gigabit per second (Gbps) download speeds, with industry consultation commencing today.

Consultation on the 2 gigabit speed tiers for residential and business customers was scheduled to commence in the second half of this year. However, several retailers recently expressed their preference to initiate consultation and discussions on multi-gigabit speed tiers sooner rather than later.

As part of the expanded consultation, nbn and RSPs will be considering their combined approach to the delivery of 2 gigabit per second wholesale download speeds to eligible residential, business and enterprise customers across Australia.

The company is proposing to develop three, new ‘hyper-fast’ wholesale products¹ for residential and business customers connected to the nbn^® network via Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) or Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) technology. Subject to industry consultation, the new, 2 Gbps (2,000 Mbps) wholesale product would be available in three variants:

1. nbn Home Hyperfast for FTTP, offering speeds of 2,000/200 Mbps²
2. nbn Home Hyperfast for HFC, offering speeds of 2,000/100 Mbps²
3. Business Fibre Plan for FTTP, offering speeds of 2,000/500 Mbps²
   

In addition to releasing the new consultation paper on the proposed multi-gigabit speed tiers, the company also issued a related consultation paper on Next Generation FTTP Network Termination Devices (NTDs) or ‘nbn connection boxes’.

As an essential requirement to enable multi-gigabit speeds, a new, slimline, single-port NTD, which has the technical capability to accommodate future speeds up to 2.5 Gbps, is proposed to be made available for residential use, and a new, four-port model, which has the technical capability to accommodate future speeds up to 10 Gbps, is proposed for businesses.

nbn has asked RSPs to consider whether they would like the three, new, Hyperfast speed tiers to be launched at the same time as nbn accelerates the Home Fast, Superfast and Ultrafast speed tiers, or whether they would like to see a sequential launch schedule.

The consultation expands on the company’s original proposal that would see five times faster wholesale download speeds on the popular nbn Home Fast product, accelerating it from 100/20 Mbps to 500/50 Mbps.

The company has proposed to triple the wholesale download speed of nbn Home Superfast from 250/25 Mbps to 750/50 Mbps.

It has proposed to accelerate the wholesale speed of nbn Home Ultrafast from (500 to ~1000)/50 Mbps to (750 to ~1000)/(50 to 100) Mbps³. Today, nbn confirmed that it would be feasible to double the upload speed of this product (rather than providing an upload speed range) and is now proposing to accelerate nbn Home Ultrafast to deliver wholesale speeds of ~1000/100 Mbps³.

nbn hosted an industry webinar today to explain the increased scope of its consultation and has released the two additional consultation papers for industry feedback. The deadline for RSP feedback on the original consultation paper and the two new consultation papers is 5pm on Thursday 27 June 2024. nbn expects to issue a closure paper to confirm the outcomes of the consultation process in Q1 FY25.

Anna Perrin, Chief Customer Officer, NBN Co, said:

“When we released our proposal to turbo-charge our three highest residential speed tiers, internet retailers were receptive and immediately engaged in the consultation process.

“Several retailers were also quick to recognise our mention of the investments we have made to upgrade our network, which is now opening up the possibility of multi-gigabit speeds.

“We are therefore happy to explore how and when the nbn network could deliver wholesale download speeds of 2 Gbps to eligible residential and business customers.

“Our consultation with retailers is providing them with line-of-sight to a multi-gigabit future, enabling them to prepare their products and customer services to meet the growing need for speed amongst residential, business and enterprise customers.”

Additional value for Enterprise Ethernet customers

With the significant growth of nbn’s FTTP footprint, the company continues to enhance its service offering across its portfolio and proposes to reduce its wholesale prices for enterprise and medium-sized corporate customers.

nbn proposes to configure all symmetrical Enterprise Ethernet speed tiers of 500 Mbps and above with its highest level of service – Premium 4 (24/7) – at no extra wholesale charge. The change is designed to align the wholesaler’s service offerings between Enterprise Ethernet and Business Fibre over nbn Ethernet, as requested by RSPs.

Additionally, nbn is proposing to reduce wholesale prices on higher bandwidths. In doing so, nbn will look to simplify the product by flattening pricing to highlight the tiers, as detailed in the table below⁴.

Notes to Editors

1. The availability of these speed tiers is subject to the capacity within each individual HFC segment or FTTP PON port reflected in the service qualification function (and may affect RSPs’ ability to place an order).
2. An end customer’s experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn^® network, depends on some factors outside nbn’s control (like equipment quality, software and how a retail service provider designs its network) and the nbn technology used for the connection.
3. The actual wholesale speeds delivered will be less than 1,000 Mbps due to equipment and network limitations.
4. The actual maximum wholesale download speeds delivered to service providers will be less than 10,000 Mbps (or in some cases less than 1,000 Mbps if that is the bandwidth acquired), due to equipment and network limitations. The experience, including the speeds achieved, depends on some factors outside nbn’s control (like customer equipment quality, software, and how each service provider designs its network). For Enterprise Ethernet connections, if Class of Service High has not been chosen, speeds may be affected by contention on the nbn^® network, particularly in busy periods.