Internode, Primus connect customers to NBN

Stephen Withers
Monday, 05 July 2010 12:02

IT Industry - Development

ISPs Internode and iPrimus have announced that they have connected their first customers to the National Broadband Network.

Internode and Primus both connected at least one customer in Midway Point, Tasmania to the NBN on Friday.

The iPrimus customer, identified only as Mark, said "We have a PC, two laptops and a few gaming consoles, so having everything online at once and all working fast is critical to us. We are definitely looking forward to streaming TV and movies in the future."

Internode's customer, Robert Pettman, was thinking along similar lines. "In future, I'm really interested in what will happen with IPTV services. I have a media centre that records free to air TV, so I'm quite excited to see what will happen in that space. Also, I'm planning to buy a home theatre system with an Internet connectivity setting, so I can watch YouTube movies on TV," he said.

Pettman chose a 50Mbps service. "I've done speed tests and have seen a few peaks of 80 megabits per second, although it mostly hovers around 50Mbps," he said.

Internode has chosen to price its pilot fibre plans below its standalone ADSL plans. "We've deliberately offered a service that is better priced than ADSL so that people have a real incentive to test out this new service," said product manager Jim Kellett. "We want to use this opportunity to discover how people use fast Internet services when they are not constrained by either price or speed," he explained.

Internode charges $A29.95 for its entry-level 25Mbps plan with a quota of 15GB per month. 100Mbps plans start at $A59.95 for 15G.

What about iPrimus? Please read on.