Credit: NBN Co
NBN Co has announced the third extension to its offer to provide internet retailers with additional data capacity at no extra cost until the new end date of 30 November.
As with the previous extensions, this includes the increased data limits for its Sky Muster satellite service to 90 GB until the end of November, adding an extra 45 GB for each standard Sky Muster service at no added cost.
Brad Whitcomb, NBN Co chief customer officer, said the third extension came due to reactions from providers.
“Following feedback from internet retailers over the past few weeks, we have decided to extend our offer of additional capacity for another 10 weeks and will be extending further measures to help make broadband even more affordable and accessible to low-income households," he said.
Those extended measures include NBN Co's Education Assistance and Illuminate offers.
The first offer, which gives support to unconnected low-income households with online schooling needs, has been extended until 15 January 2021, which waives NBN Co’s $37 monthly wholesale charge for internet providers for many services on its 25/5 Mbps speed tier.
Meanwhile, its IIluminate offer, which gives retailers a 50 per cent discount on the wholesale price of most fixed line and fixed wireless bundles for a 12 month period, has been expanded to include customers on the Education Assistance package when it expires.
The latter discount applies to premises that have either not connected to the network and have passed 18 months since the premise was able to connect or have been disconnected from an active service for more than six months.
“We also recognise that many Australian households are under financial pressure, particularly low-income households. Therefore, we are concentrating our efforts to help lower-income households continue to have access to affordable broadband services,” Whitcomb said.
He added that the inclusion of the Illuminate expansion was to allow retailers to continue supporting their existing customers following the end of the Education Assistance offer.
The initial capacity offer was launched in March to give internet providers pricing relief for up to 40 per cent more Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) capacity to respond to increased demand driven by the coronavirus pandemic.
This third extension and expanded offers come as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) called in August for feedback on a proposal from NBN Co to address concerns about service standards for wholesale National Broadband Network (NBN) products and the pricing of entry-level NBN services.
