By Patrick Avenell

Australia’s self-described “second largest DSL internet service provider” iiNet has today released its launch pricing for NBN plans, offering an insight into how much general retail consumers will have to pay under the new telecommunications infrastructure program.

Although the NBN has long been marketed as a deliverer of 100 megabytes per second speeds (equivalent to around 25 MP3s), iiNet’s plans are advertised at 12 megabytes per second, with consumers having to pay a “turbo pack” expense to reach full speed.

The cheapest plan available at 100MB per second is $69.95 per month for 20GB/20GB (on/off peak), with entry level access available for $49.95 per month for 20GB/20GB at 12MB per second.

For the extreme user, iiNet is offering 500GB/500GB plans for $79.95 per month at 12MB per second, plus an $20 per month achieve 100MB per second speeds.

There are also two minor turbo packs available, at 25MB per second and 50MB per second, available for monthly excesses of $5 and $15, respectively.

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The full pricing is as follows, all at 12MB per second (shaped to 1MB):

20GB/20GB – $49.95 per month
100GB/100GB – $59.95 per month
500GB/500GB – $79.95 per month

Turbo Packs:

25MB per second (shaped to 5MB) – $5 per month
50MB per second (shaped to 20MB) – $15 per month
100MB per second (shaped to 40MB) – $20 per month

For the consumer electronics retailer, these prices are encouraging, as they are not that much more expensive than existing plans, but offer much better speeds, and an expected greater level of reliability.

This will be good news not just for the PC industry, with consumers looking to upgrade to computers that can best maximise this connectivity, but also for the TV industry, which is currently undergoing a Smart revolution.

Also to benefit from the NBN is the home phone category, with a number of leading brands preparing to launch VoIP units to deliver high quality telephone communications with reduced ongoing costs.

“The NBN is on everyone’s radar and we have products at our disposal to sell in the market once the network is rolled out completely over Australia,” said Uniden senior national marketing executive Brad Hales.