Nine in 10 businesses will be able to order faster and cheaper broadband thanks to the NSW Nationals in the federal government.
Under the new initiative announced by the NSW Nationals in the federal government, businesses will be able to access premium-grade NBN business fibre services at no upfront build cost to their retail service providers, boosting economic growth in regional areas.
NBN Co’s Business Fibre Initiative is part of a $700 million package to transform the accessibility and affordability of business-grade fibre and allow small to medium businesses to embrace opportunities for growth.
The initiative will offer wholesale symmetrical speeds from 10 Mbps up to 1 Gbps on-request to more than 700,000 businesses in 240 Business Fibre Zones, including 85 Business Fibre Zones located in regional areas. It will also reduce wholesale pricing by up to 67 per cent for businesses in Zones outside metropolitan centres.
The first 130 Business Fibre Zones have been announced by NBN Co and include regional locations such as Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour, a move welcomed by local NSW Nationals MP Pat Conaghan.
“The launch of the Business Fibre Initiative will support business critical applications including cloud storage and online collaboration helping our local businesses stay competitive in the digital age,” Mr Conaghan said.
NSW Nationals Minister for Regional Communications Mark Coulton said regional businesses would benefit from the transformation to NBN wholesale business pricing, which will bring regional pricing into line with capital cities.
“Businesses in regional Australia are resilient and innovative; they’ve met the challenges of COVID-19 by expanding their digital footprint and adapting how they do business and this reduction in costs will further help those in the regions,” Mr Coulton said.
“The new Business Fibre Zones will connect regional businesses to staff, patients, suppliers, business partners and customers wherever they’re located, putting them on an even playing field with their metropolitan counterparts.”
What it means for you
Businesses in these zones will be eligible to access Enterprise Ethernet, NBN Co’s fastest wholesale product, which provides options for prioritised bandwidth, 24/7 dedicated support through NBN’s business operations centre, and symmetrical wholesale speeds suitable for data-intensive applications such as online collaboration and cloud-based tools.
The NSW Nationals in the federal government are backing this significant investment into Australia’s small and medium businesses, which will be critical not only to our economic recovery from COVID-19 but to our goal of Australia becoming a leading digital economy by 2030.
What’s more, the additional investment into NBN Co’s Business Fibre Initiative will enable businesses to boost their digital capabilities and create thousands of jobs.
More information about the Business Fibre Initiative is available at: nbnco.com.au/businessfibre.
