Rebasing Expections, page-63

Just google 'theaustralian', 'nbn' and 'netcomm wireless' from an incognito window.

NBN Co has spruced up the speeds it can provide over the wireless footprint of the National Broadband Network, with the company lifting the peak download speed from 50 megabits per second to 100 Mbps.

The addition of the 100/40Mbps speed tier will allow wireless customers in regional Australia to get the same NBN options as fixed line customers in metropolitan areas.
The speed boost, five years after the launch of the wireless service, is the latest move by NBN Co to upgrade its existing wholesale offering for retail service providers.

NBN Co, with Ericsson, Qualcomm and ASX-listed NetComm Wireless, will start offering a 100/40 Mbps wholesale speed tiers to retail service providers early next year.
But the quality of the service regional customers end up receiving from their provider will depend on the pricing and installation details, which are yet to be ironed out.

While the NBN rollout has picked up pace, there are signs of discontent among users with many not receiving the speeds or performance promised by the NBN plans sold by the telcos. The wholesale pricing mechanism deployed by NBN Co remains a contentious issue for the telcos, with many provisioning insufficient capacity to deliver optimum service to customers.

According to the telecommunications industry ombudsman, formal complaints about NBN faults continue to edge up as the network reaches more neighbourhoods. However, the ombudsman does not provide a breakdown of the complaints based on access technology.

While the new wireless service, which uses new carrier aggregation technology, will be business grade, NBN Co general manager for fixed wireless Roy Brown said it would be made available for residential customers.

He said NBN Co would not have to buy additional spectrum to provide the higher speed tier and the fixed wireless was in no way inferior to providing a robust wholesale service that retailers can use to deliver high speeds to regional households.

The fixed wireless network provides wholesale speeds of up to 50/20Mbps to nearly 500,000 premises across regional Australia. With close to 170,000 regional premises already connected to these services, users on existing services need to upgrade equipment to access higher speeds.

NBN chief executive Bill Morrow said enhancing the capacity of the fixed wireless service was a game-changer for regional areas. “It’s really exciting to be launching this game-changing product for our fixed wireless customers,” he said.