4567 homes in the Bass electorate will be slugged $240 extra a year to receive the same internet service as households in cities, under a new NBN pricing plan revealed in Federal Parliament overnight.

Before a Joint Standing Committee into the National Broadband Network, NBNCo admitted it plans to slug rural and regional Australians on the fixed-wireless network $20 more per month than a customer who is on a fixed line service.

There are over 245,510 premises connected to an NBN Wireless service. This will grow to 600,000 by 2021. These households and businesses are overwhelmingly in regional and rural Australia.
Mr Hart said “this is an extra $20 per month rural and regional consumers will have to fork out”.

“I’ve had constituents in the North East contact me desperate for a connection for their business and now that a Fixed-Wireless Connection is almost available, they could now pay 44% more than someone in the city for the same 50 Mps speed under this plan.”

Mr Jones said “because of his failures, the Prime Minister now wants people in Bass to pick up the bill for his mess”.

“Under Turnbull, we have a second-rate NBN that is $20 billion over budget and four years behind schedule.

“It’s no wonder residents in Bass are being lumped with higher prices, slower speeds and less reliable service.”

Extract from NBN Joint Select Committee
Wednesday 15 August 2018

Brian Mitchell MP: ….. I represent a country electorate where a lot of my people are on Fixed Wireless. I want to be crystal clear, are you saying that if somebody lives in the centre of Hobart and they are on a 50 [Mbps] bundled service, they are paying $45 wholesale and they move out to my electorate and get a fixed wireless tower on the new bundled service you’re talking about, they’ll be paying $65 wholesale? Is that in essence what you’re saying?

Mr Stephen Rue, NBNCo: If the retail provider chooses to purchase a bundled 50/20 product from us, that will be $65 yes.

STEPHEN JONES MP SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL SERVICES, TERRITORIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT MEMBER FOR WHITLAM ROSS HART FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BASS