NBN Co has said it will provide retail service providers (RSPs) with free bandwidth from Monday, in order to support the higher number of people working from home due to COVID-19.
RSPs will be able to access 40% more connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) for at least three months. NBN Co said that this would apply across all their technologies, including fixed wireless and Sky Muster satellite services.
According to NBN Co, the network has already recorded 5-6% more traffic in recent days, and they expect this to increase further, in line with trends seen in other countries that have gone into lock down.
A number of RSPs have already announced free additional data for customers in the month ahead.
Telstra is providing its consumer and small business home broadband customers with unlimited data at no extra cost from today until the 30th of April. The provider is also giving its post-paid and prepaid customers 25GB of data free for the next 30 days, and is offering 10GB of free data for pre-paid customers with an active recharge of $40.
Optus, meanwhile, stated, “For our Optus NBN residential and 5G Home customers, our packages already provide unlimited data.” But state that they were giving eligible mobile subscribers a one-off 20GB of free extra data, which can be activated during April and will be valid for 30 days. Optus prepaid customers will get 10GB of free data when they recharge with $40 or more during the month of April.
Vodafone is giving all post-paid customers not on an endless data plan an additional 5GB to use in the next month, while active prepaid customers will be given a one-off bonus of 3GB.
