The NBN Co has announced a range of new wholesale symmetric broadband packages targeted at medium sized businesses.
The announcement sees NBN Co wholesaling symmetrical broadband packages at 5 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 20 Mbps, 30 Mbps and 40 Mbps to internet service providers.
The new packages are designed to support business-grade products such as multiline high-definition video conferencing, converged business voice and data, and cloud-based online backup.
The wholesale product, titled Medium Business Service, was originally planned for in the NBN Co’s 2011 consultation paper, which described the service as a replacement for bonded DSL broadband services.
“The Medium Business Service has been designed to address the segment that currently acquires mid-band copper (bonding) and fibre services, which currently range from 2 Megabits per second to 10 Megabits per second,” the report stated.
Telecommunications companies Commander and Macquarie Telecom have already confirmed they will look at offering business-specific services for medium-sized businesses based on the new wholesale packages.
An NBN Co spokesperson told SmartCompany the packages are part of a continuing rollout of new products aimed at the business community.
“NBN Co is designing business products to address the needs of Australian Business – Business, Medium and Enterprise. These will be delivered in a phased approach. Today’s Medium Business Services announcement continues the development of these products, with more to come,” the spokesperson says.
“The features are aimed at allowing Retail Service Providers to provide businesses with the best possible performance even at peak times.
“The Medium Business Services will also deliver the choice of enhanced fault rectification service levels for Service Providers, including the ability to have outages restored 24/7.”
In a statement, Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton welcomes the new product.
“Small and medium businesses increasingly find themselves at a competitive disadvantage if they lack the capability to use interactive and collaborative communications tools – often video-centric and typically demanding of high-speed, stable connectivity. I hope this NBN offering will help service providers deliver a value-added suite of services that will help empower medium-sized businesses across the nation,” Stanton says.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
