New fish join NBN pool
More big players for Australia’s high-speed internet market, with Foxtel and a Singaporean ISP launching new NBN offerings this week.
Pay TV giant Foxtel says it will sell fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) plans on the NBN to support its streaming video and on-demand programming, bundling broadband, TV and home phone service with either a 100GB data cap or unlimited traffic.
Meanwhile, Singaporean internet provider MyRepublic is expanding its operations to Australia, selling NBN plans with speeds up to 100/40 Mbps , without data caps.
MyRepublic got its start offering no-frills plans on Singapore's Next Generation National Broadband Network, a national fibre-to-the-premises project.
The company is known for ditching the often arbitrary data limits and speed tiers that other ISPs impose.
MyRepublic has been selling fibre plans on New Zealand's Ultra Fast Broadband network since 2014, and is preparing to become a mobile operator as well.
“Now that there are 3 million homes on the NBN it makes sense for us to enter the market,” says MyRepublic chief executive Malcolm Rodrigues.
“We're purpose built for the NBN and everything we do is around NBN-based architecture, creating the first, true NBN product.
“We're coming in and being disruptive, and I think in six months time, the other guys will follow.
“Telstra, TPG and the others will start talking more about speed, talking about 100 Mbps, rather than 30 Mbps, and their prices will come closer to ours,” he said.