Thousands of premises in NSW, QLD and Vic have been given a strict deadline to switch over to the NBN, or else have their service cut off completely on May 2014. After the 18 month deadline, which starts on November 23 next, all existing services on copper including phone, broadband and Pay TV will be switched off, NBN Co warned today. The mass switchover to high speed fibre services kicks off next month for 15 locations, including Armidale (the highest number of premises being told to switch) and Kiama, NSW, Townsville Qld, and over six locations in Tasmania including George Town, St Helens and Kingston Beach. By May 2014 all existing fixed phone lines, Internet services including ADSL running off the existing copper networks will be switched off. NBN Co’s Communications head, Kieren Cooney, confirmed “a comprehensive communications program is underway to inform people of the easy steps they need to take to switchover. “We also expect that telephone and internet providers will be very active in their communications,” said Cooney. Every telco – around 45 in total – from Telstra, iiNet and Optus are offering NBN services along with a slew of smaller players including MyNetFone, Broadband Multinet and MyFibre. In some areas there is more than 30 providers flogging fibre services. iiNet’s NBN plans starts at $49 per month for 30GB data, its $69 plan has 300GB data while TPG plans to release an ‘unlimited’ data plans for $69. Telstra plans starts at $49 with 50GB data, $69.95 (200GB) and $89.95 plan with a massive 500GB data, with separate Tassie pricing. NBN Co’s fibre network promises speeds of “up to” 25Mbps to 100Mbps on the higher tier plans, which NBN Co says are proving popular among early subscribers. NBN Co are pushing to have as many early subscribers as possible and are uring residents in the outlined areas to switch early in order to make the most out of the fibre optic network and contact their telco. |
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| “There is no need to wait until the last minute,” says Jim Hassell, NBN Co Head of Product Management.
“The feedback from people already connected is that they can enjoy making high-quality video calls with fewer drop outs, downloading movies in minutes, streaming TV, and having all the family online at once. “ Check out the areas covered by the NBN’s three-year rollout plan at nbnco.com.au. The NBN is due to be completed in part by 2015 with all services including satellite to be active by 2020. |
