Sunday, July 31, 2011

Australia - Minister says that prices for services over the NBN are set to fall

[kidsolo] Minister Stephen Conroy says internet prices will fall as major service providers begin offering services on the National Broadband Network.

Mr Conroy rebuffed suggestions the network would be too expensive for everyday users as he switched on the network today for 2000 households at Kiama, on the NSW south coast.

Internet service provider Internode last week announced a $190 a month plan allowing users to get the full 100 megabits per second speeds promised by the government with a 1 terabyte download limit.

Senator Conroy said the competition between service providers including Telstra, Optus, iiNet and Vodafone, which are yet to come out with their own access prices, would give internet users a better deal.

“I see more exciting retail competition and we all know that retail competition will actually lead to lower prices,” he said.

He said another company, Dodo, had flagged a national access price of below $40 while Exetel had proceeded with a $35 mainland price.

“These claims people will be paying more in regional areas for the national broadband are just being shown by other retail service providers to be false,” he said.
NBN Co chief Mike Quigley said consumers today would have to pay huge costs to get the sort of speeds that would be offered by the NBN for a fraction of the cost.
“It costs you literally thousands of dollars to buy that service today,” he said.
The National Broadband Network will allow Australians to download at 100 Mbps and upload at 40 Mbps.

NBN prices set to drop

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