The National Broadband Network (NBN) is the subject of promises from the government that consumers will pay comparable prices to current day ADSL2+ and phone service bundles in order to access entry level NBN based services, and that NBN based retail pricing will be nationally uniform.

Unfortunately, a number of pressure points in the wholesale pricing model exist which will make these promises (from the government) untenable in practice, unless serious issues with the underlying pricing model are addressed by NBNCo and the ACCC.

This post elaborates on some of the relevant issues that serve to place upward pressure on NBN based retail pricing in general and even more pressure upon retail pricing in regional areas in particular.

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(Edited to add an epilogue on 20th December 2010)

A key sticking point in the context of the National Broadband Network is the question of how many exit points the network should have.

This post provides my point of view about that question, and argues that competition (and consumer benefit) is critically dependent on the number of POI’s being minimised. (more…)

Internode regularly revises its market offerings.

Internode has released a set of changes to our broadband ADSL plans that are effective from 10th August 2010.

This post provides a short summary of what changed (and what didn’t change) in this particular plan revision. (more…)