Best Unlimited NBN Plans?

[Adrian2017]

I have been searching the Internet for the best NBN deals.
In anticipation for when my service becomes active in October this year.

It looks like an ISP called My Republic offer Unlimited 100/40 NBN Internet for only $60 a month.

I looked at TPG NBN plans and the best they can do and TPG charge $100 for the same privilege.

It seems like there are better value deals out there, then the ones that TPG offer.

What is TPG going to do about this?

[Adrian2017]

A follow up on my earlier question.

There is yet another ISP who is offering much better value plans then TPG on the NBN.

I have found a NBN Telco named Buzz Telco who are offering some very affordable unlimited NBN data plans

$49 for 12/1 Unlimited per a month.
$59 for 25/5 Unlimited per a month.
$69 for 100/40 Unlimited per a month.

https://buzztelco.com.au/nbn/

Are you able to comment on this?

[Elss]

hiya Adrian

The retailer needs to pay NBNco $38 (EX GST)  wholesale for the 100mbps  line to your home.

NBNco charge the retailers $15 per 1Mbps for traffic on the NBN so if the retailer buys you 2Mbps then thats $30 for traffic charge.

So far NBN wholesale costs alone are $68 Ex GST without the cost of international bandwidth and cost to service you.

 So when TPG is charging $99 Inc GST its cause TPG needs to buy you enough bandwidth on the NBN and International to make sure your experience is good.

TPG was rated #1 NBN provider by Canstar in 2016 for customer satisfaction, performance and value.

 

In the NBN world with 40+ retails there will always be a cheaper provider on price.....

[Adrian2017]

Hi Elss,

Thanks for going to all that trouble in trying to explain the wholesale costs to TPG on the NBN.

One thing I don't understand is what you mean by $15 for every 1 MBps in the contaxt of the NBN connection.

Is this the slowest 5 MB speed gaurantee that you give for 12/1 and 25/5?

VS

The 100/40 with a 12 MBps minimum speed guarantee.

Or have I got that wrong?

So if for example 1MBps is $15.
Then for a Standard NBN plan is that $15 x 12 which is the maximum theoretical speed which would equal $180?

But TPG only charges $59.95 for the 12/1 Unlimited plan!

So how does TPG make any money at all?

[Ozone]

I think what this means is that TPG buys 2Mbps of CVC for a 100Mbps line connection so you are only guaranteed 2Mbps on a 100Mbps line connection. Another way of looking at it is that 50 or so customers are sharing or contending that same 100Mbps line (circuit) at any given time.

TPG is assuming here that not all of those 50 or so 'Unlimited 100Mbps' customers will be using their service at the same time. Slow speed happens if too many of those 50 or so customers are downloading data at max speeds (like in the evenings).

As per NBN CEO Bill Morrow, the average bit rate per user on the network was approximately 1Mbps.

Buying too much CVC means better speeds at peak time but also reduction in RSP's profit. So the ISP has to balance profit and customer satisfaction.

From a profitability standpoint, it's a conscious decision from the RSP to either wait for congestion to be so unbearable for customers BEFORE deciding to buy more CVC or to buy more of it BEFORE congestion becomes unbearable for customers.

As much as possible, RSP tries to avoid wasted CVC by doing the above and by signing up more customers to ensure that the CVC is used up. CVC maximisation is tricky because some technologies such as FTTN just can't achieve top speeds. It's like buying more CVC doesn't really help customer as speed is hobbled already by the copper wires.

The good news here is that a new CVC wholesale pricing model took effect last 01 June 2017. NBN said that CVC pricing will automatically decrease in price as the average amount of CVC per end user increases. The CVC pricing will now be based on individual retailer averages rather than the previous model of using an industry average.

So the more TPG buys more CVC, the more it gets cheaper for TPG to buy them.

Prior to 01 June 2017, CVC was priced at $17.50 per 1Mbps. As per previous posts, it looks like TPG is enjoying the discount implemented after above date as they are now only charged $15.

NBN predicts that as data usage continues to increase over the network, they expect CVC pricing to drop further. Based on NBN's forecasted usage, they see the CVC price approaching $10.

So really, we consumers have to maximise usage of our NBN services right now and push it to the max. Download, stream and upload all you can. Yes, it will slow down and get congested, which will force TPG to buy more CVC.

There is no other way. No pain, no gain, as they say.

[Adrian2017]

Hey Ozone,

Interesting way of putting it.
I appreciate all the time and effort you have gone into writing up the detailed explanation.

So the minimum speed of 5MBps on 12/25 Unlimited plans vs 12MBps on 100 Unlimited plans is the guaranteed minimum when the network gets congested.
As those are the 1MB CVC blocks that TPG buys for it's cudtomers at $15 each.

I can't wait for October 13th to come around.
It's my expected Activation date in my area.

Also from what you mentioned.
It sounds like FTTN is inferior to HFC which is what I am expected to get once it gets hooked into my House.

At least the Coaxil Cable is thick and carries a stronger impulse. Hopefully more resistant to interference fromthe outside world.

[Fiery]

I will tell you I am very tempted to leave TPG for Buzztelco

Not only are they cheaper than TPG for NBN, they are an Australian based company, Unlike TPG who have out sourced 

[jeltz191]

Now I know why we have 100 NBN retailers and no price competition!

It is curious how different wholesale business models/roll outs push retailers+users into different responses. I understand now why the 100/40 I brought maxes out at (minimum guarantee+2)/(minimum guarantee+2)

Since the NB roll-out is capital intensive compared to operating costs,like most utilities the value is in the infrastructure, not what is going over it. It would seem a fixed monthly fee would be a better wholesaler/retailer model than a smaller fixed fee + large mbps charge.

Otherwise (the staus quo) retailers cannot really compete without introducing data charges, something I hope the public have learned from the mobile telcos, is not a great retail model. Just like NBN it leads to lots of retailers and no real competition. Data caps are just a slightly more friendly data charge by another name in the case of NBN model. 

So if NBN charged a wholesale flat fee per month for each tier, enough to amortise that 1mbps average backbone plus enough to upgrade ahead of the curve as this number rises, then the retailers (and public) know what they have to do to compete price wise. 

Sigh, what a mess.

[jeltz191]

Hi Adrian2017,

All  I can say is I have just been through what you have been through and I ended up with TPG.

But really, it is a stab in the dark, because retailers are also in the dark due to the way NBN charges them (see other replies). I left Telstra purely because of cost, but all NBN retailers have to juggle actual user bit rates with a wholesale cost of $15/mbps and they can do this in different ways, providing different degrees of negative experience to their users. That is if you wanted 100 mbps dedicated just to you to guarantee it whenever, the retailer would be up for $1500 per month to NBN ! Wow !

My recommendation is never go with a contract plan. Make best guess, go month to month, and if a bad experience, try another. But really, all retailers are just going to be different degrees of bad experience because of the current funding model.

I am curious though about Telstra. Telstra seemingly have no desire at all to compete in the NBN market (perhaps they also have a side bet on their cell technologies outcompeting NBN). On the other hand, perhaps their high costs reflect the true cost of getting a good experience from an NBN connection.

Or perhaps NBN lease a lot of their backbone from Telstra and so Telstra are getting their cut anyway regardless of retail market.

[Ozone]

@Adrian2017

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Also from what you mentioned.
It sounds like FTTN is inferior to HFC which is what I am expected to get once it gets hooked into my House.

At least the Coaxil Cable is thick and carries a stronger impulse. Hopefully more resistant to interference fromthe outside world.

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FTTN really is inferior. You have to be close to the node to get the best speeds because there's no signal amplification on the copper wires. Most of Telstra's copper wires are in a bad state. It also doesn't help that these copper wires are unshielded which results to dramatic signal loss. Speeds may improve once the ADSL2 network is fully decommisioned on a FTTN area but that remains to be seen.

HFC, on the other hand, uses coaxial cable (made up of copper wires inside a heavy shield of plastic) with active power amplification across the whole connection to protect the copper from signal degradation over distance.

HFC is also more future-proof than FTTN since the technology used, DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification), has been updated to v3.1, allowing for gigabit speeds. In fact, NBN Co has already announced that it will launch DOCSIS 3.1 in late 2018.

@jeltz191

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Since the NB roll-out is capital intensive compared to operating costs,like most utilities the value is in the infrastructure, not what is going over it. It would seem a fixed monthly fee would be a better wholesaler/retailer model than a smaller fixed fee + large mbps charge.

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Read what the NBN Co has to say about this.

Is NBN to blame with its infamous CVC charge?