1Gbps Internet in Australia

Australian's will start to see the benefits of the NBN's new wholesale pricing discounts today as Aussie Broadband is set to launch Australia's first NBN 1000/50 residential plan.

Although exciting, the launch will only be available to those with Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP), meaning that most residential customers will need to continue to hold their breath. Managing Director Phillip Britt said:

Not surprisingly, we are keep to offer the 1Gbps plans as soon as NBN introduces the product... The new plan will initially be released for all FTTP premises and some of the HFC network, and we anticipate the footprint will grow with time.

The dangling carrot for eligible Australians is not just the potential speeds itself, it is also the price. The plan with cost only $149/month, which is $40 more expensive than the top-tier NBN plans being offered by the big three telcos. However, assuming 1000Mbps is reached, you are paying $0.149/Mbps compared with $1.10/Mbps if you're playing $110/month for 100Mbps with a rival telco.

Phil Britt has warned however:

This is a best effort service and peak evening speeds with vary based on network demand at the time... We think that the plan should achieve off-peak speeds of up to 80-90% depending on the technology type... For the moment, we will be advising customers our peak evening speeds for our 250Mbps plans as a baseline until we have collated enough data from our own network testing

Residential customers who currently use Aussie Broadband and are on a 250/25 plan will automatically be moved to the 1000/50 plan at no extra cost, in fact as the 1000 plan is cheaper, they will be saving money.

More to come once the plans go live.