NBN Co today published its wholesale tariff list for FY25 and three-year wholesale pricing roadmap for FY25-27. The wholesale price changes are in line with the previous three-year pricing roadmap that was published by nbn in November 2023.

The tariff list details nbn’s wholesale prices across its product range for FY25 (from 1 July 2024), and the roadmap sets out the FY25 wholesale prices and indicative wholesale prices for FY26 to FY27, laying the foundation for how plans are packaged and sold to customers by participating internet retailers.

The wholesale price changes are designed to balance nbn’s ability to reinvest in the network to deliver faster speeds, increased data capacity and greater reliability, while continuing to provide a range of products to suit various customer needs and budgets.

Details outlined in nbn’s wholesale pricing roadmap follows two years of thorough consultation with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), internet retailers and consumer advocacy groups on the Special Access Undertaking (SAU) Variation framework under which these price changes are made. In October 2023, the ACCC accepted the framework governing nbn’s approach as being in the long-term interests of customers.

Like many other businesses in Australia and worldwide, nbn has been impacted by higher input costs of materials from suppliers. The wholesale prices that nbn charges to retailers in FY25 will increase by approximately 4.1 per cent, on average, across nbn’s range of wholesale services. This reflects the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the twelve months to the December 2023 quarter.

nbn encourages customers to review the plan they are on to ensure it meets their needs. There are around 120 internet retailers who package and sell nbn’s products, offering a range of plans, with various inclusions and at different prices to suit everyone from casual internet browsers to large families that stream entertainment and games and small businesses operating from home, ensuring there’s an internet plan matched to a range of budgets and situations.

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

“We understand that any price change can be a concern for customers, particularly considering current cost of living pressures. For this reason, we strive to be as prudent and efficient as possible with our investments to make every dollar count.

“We thoroughly consulted with the ACCC, internet service providers and consumer advocacy groups as part of the recent SAU Variation process. This ensures our wholesale pricing approach balances the need to invest in our network, recover our efficient costs and ensure we continue to provide value to all Australian customers no matter where they live and work.

“Data usage on the nbn^® network is doubling every five years, which makes a strong case for the delivery of faster speeds and greater capacity across the network. Today, the average household uses 22 internet-connected devices, and this is expected to grow to 40 by the end of the decade.

“Each week, around 6,000 customers are placing orders to upgrade to full fibre higher speed tiers. These trends underscore the increasing expectations for faster speeds and more data. In response, nbn’s wholesale price adjustments will help to ensure we can continue to invest in the network to improve its speed, capacity, and reliability for the benefit of all Australians.

“Our priority is to meet today's demands and ensure our network is future-ready for the innovations and advancements that households and businesses will rely upon in the years ahead. We are confident that our investments will result in superior service and support the needs of Australians in an increasingly digital world.”

FY25 wholesale price changes from 1 July 2024

For customers that use their nbn connection primarily for telephone calls, the fixed bundle price³ for the 12/1 Basic Bundle will remain flat at $12 per month. The Home Basic I (12/1 Mbps) product, suitable for internet browsing and standard or high-definition streaming from a single TV and basic online games will see its wholesale fixed bundle price increase by $2.45 to $26.85 per month. These price points are applicable to wholesale products on the fixed line and fixed wireless networks.

The entry level Home Basic II (25/5 Mbps) product, which supports standard internet use such as telephone calls, email and internet browsing, as well as streaming 4K on one device, basic online games and video calls on a relatively small number of internet-connected devices in the home, will see its wholesale fixed bundle price increase by $2.24 to $28.24 per month. This price point is applicable to wholesale products on the fixed line and fixed wireless networks.

The fixed bundle price for nbn’s Home Standard (50/20 Mbps) fixed line and fixed wireless product, which supports up to two simultaneous 4K streaming devices and is suitable for online gaming and video teleconference calls, will rise by $2.52 to $52.52 per month, while the Home Fast (100/20 Mbps) wholesale price, available on the fixed line network, will rise by $2.22 to $57.22 per month. The Home Fast plan supports 4K streaming on multiple devices, concurrent online and cloud game play and video teleconference calls when multiple other devices in the same home are online.

nbn has maintained a small wholesale price difference of just under $5 between its Home Standard (50/20 Mbps) product and its Home Fast (100/20 Mbps) product to help stimulate demand for higher speed tiers from those customers that may value them.

For example, a Fortnite patch of around 25 gigabytes would take around 73 minutes to download and consume all of the available bandwidth on a standard nbn 50/20 Mbps plan. The same patch would take around 36 minutes to download on nbn Home Fast 100/20 Mbps, and around 5 minutes on nbn Home Ultrafast 1000/50 Mbps.

The Home Superfast (250/25 Mbps) and Home Ultrafast (1000/50 Mbps) plans will both see wholesale price rises of $2.22 from 1 July 2024, and will be available to retailers for a wholesale price of $62.22 and $72.22 per month, respectively. The two highest residential speed tiers are designed to ensure customers can enjoy superior quality, high-definition 4K streaming from multiple TVs simultaneously, along with concurrent access to cloud-based applications when working and learning at home, online gaming, and maintaining fast, reliable connectivity for other smart home devices and applications⁴.

Based on wholesale discounts that are currently in market, and the Pricing Roadmap published in November 2023, nbn will reduce the wholesale price of its 250/100 Mbps product by $25 to $75 per month; the 500/200 Mbps product will be reduced by $60 to $100 per month, and the 1000/400 Mbps product will be reduced by $105 to $125 per month. These wholesale plans, with markedly higher upload speeds, are typically used by people who frequently work from home or operate small or medium-sized businesses and want to download and upload large files quickly and efficiently.

Footnotes

1 The prices and CVC inclusions and forecast average combined charges for FY26 and FY27 are indicative and non-binding, subject to the application of the TC-4 Relativity Restriction in the SAU Variation.

2 In developing the FY26 and FY27 indicative wholesale prices in the Pricing Roadmap, NBN Co has relied on Consumer Price Index (CPI) forecasts in the Statement of Monetary Policy published by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in February 2024. NBN Co notes that the prices in the Pricing Roadmap for FY26 and FY27 are indicative, and the SAU price controls which apply to the Tariff List published for those financial years will be based on the actual annual percentage change in CPI published for the December quarter before the relevant financial year.

3. The wholesale price points quoted for the 12/1, 25/5 and 50/20 speed tiers represent the fixed bundle price. Overage (charged at $4.50 per Mbps) is charged on a per-service basis for CVC TC-4 capacity utilised above the allocated CVC inclusions. The fixed bundle prices that appear in the FY25 Tariff List, as published on the nbn website are: $26.85 for Standard 12/1 Mbps speed tier (up from $24.40 in FY24); $28.24 for 25/5 Mbps speed tier (up from $26 in FY24), and $52.52 for 50/20 Mbps speed tier (up from $50 in FY24).

4. A 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. For nbn Fixed Wireless, speeds may also be impacted by the number of concurrent users on the nbn Fixed Wireless network, including during busy periods.

5. The speeds referred to in this media statement are nbn wholesale speed tiers, which nbn provides to retail service providers.