The National Broadband Network (NBN) company is now focusing on overhauling its wholesale fixed-wireless pricing, kicking off consultation with retail service providers on pricing bundles.
According to a blog post[1] by NBN executive general manager of Wholesale Products Tom Roets, there could be a "potential divide" by not offering similar bundles available across its fixed-line offerings.
"The aim would be for the fixed access and bandwidth price options to remove the requirement to retain separate charges for providers to support fixed-wireless services under our existing two-part price construct and improve the economies of scale for fixed wireless from internet and phone providers," Roets said.
"We aim to have this wholesale pricing option available to providers by the end of September 2018."
After CEO Bill Morrow last week revealed during Senate Estimates that NBN had killed off its plans[2] to offer 100Mbps fixed-wireless[3], NBN has also said it will undertake consultation on a new offering that "better aligns to the capability of the network".
"The intention is to provide end-users with the best utility from the available fixed-wireless network capacity, so they can get a better experience," Roets explained.
Morrow had last week said that while expanding capacity on fixed lines is a linear cost, the cost is exponential on fixed-wireless.
"A certain point in time starts to double, starts to quadruple," he said.
"The idea of adding a 100Mbps service actually means driving even more capacity requirement into the network, and the economics again ... this is a cost-leading effort.
"It starts to actually break apart to where it doesn't make any sense."
Roets said NBN is now also looking to improve