Wholesale NBN discounts extended, but HFC still in limbo

...AND MAYBE KISS THOSE 25MBPS PLANS GOODBYE, TOO.

NBN CO IS trying to standardise the 50Mbps speed tier, promoting it in a campaign called ‘Focus on 50’. The promotion saw the wholesale price of the 50Mbps drop with an additional 50% extra bandwidth offered for free to service providers (ISP/RSP). The promotion was due to end in April 2018, but the national broadband service has announced that the promotional period will be extended ‘til October to enable RSPs to prepare for the switch to a permanent price once the promotion has ended. In a bid to get more end users on the higher speed plans, some resellers, like TPG, have dropped the 25Mbps plans altogether. Telstra is also upgrading all its customers on the slow plan to the 50Mbps tier for free.

While NBN tries to push its high-speed plans onto the end user on fibre, millions expecting to connect to Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) broadband are still waiting. Citing performance issues, NBN Co decided to halt the rollout of its HFC connections in December 2017, saying it would be delayed by six to nine months, with updates available in February 2018. February has come and gone, and the rollout is seeing further delays. The only information forthcoming on the status of the HFC rollout from the NBN is “new information will be available over the coming weeks”.