The pricing deliberately suppresses demand. That said, backhaul and
international capacity would probably bottleneck retail services. It
would be interesting to see what demand might actually be like if they
were to offer services at an honest price-point.
<https://www.itnews.com.au/news/demand-still-not-there-for-1gbps-nbn-co-450503>
Despite ongoing trials.
Roughly “a million and a half” homes could support a 1Gbps fixed line
service on the NBN, according to NBN Co, but RSPs are yet to launch
commercial services.
The network builder has offered a wholesale 1Gbps product since
2013. Several retail service providers (RSPs) – Telstra, Optus, and
TPG – have been trialling 1Gbps services over the past year.
The number of test services fluctuates each quarter, according to
numbers reported by the ACCC. In the last quarter ended December 31,
there were 17 test services operating, including two with a new
unknown entrant.
NBN Co CEO Bill Morrow today said he could only “presume” there still
isn’t enough demand among consumers to make a 1Gbps service
commercially attractive.
“We have roughly a million and a half homes that can have the
technology to give a 1Gbps capability today,” he said.
“We have a product that we can offer the retailers should they want to
sell it. A couple of retailers have signed up to our trial base where
they’re looking at what a 1Gbps service might look like but they have
chosen not to offer it consumers.
“I presume there isn’t that big a demand out there for them to
actually develop a product to sell to those end users.”
Morrow said NBN Co had “scoured the planet” to talk to other carriers
that had successfully launched 1Gbps products into the market, and
that had secured end customer sales.
“We asked the question ‘has anyone actually used that amount of
bandwidth?’ and the answer was unanimously no,” Morrow said.
“There aren’t that many applications that warrant much above the
products that are being sold at NBN today.
“We know there are things on the horizon that are going to increase
the need for demand. All of these could drive up consumer need, but we
haven’t seen it as yet.”
Interest in gigabit services has been renewed in recent weeks after
Telstra’s announcement that it would boostpeak speeds in some CBD
areas to 1Gbps
<https://www.itnews.com.au/news/telstra-to-boost-cbd-4g-speeds-to-1gbps-449349>.
However actual speeds in the 4G cells would be significantly lower,
leading to questions over how realistic the service is as a fixed-line
replacement, as Telstra has touted it.
--
David Boxall | My figures are just as good
| as any other figures.
http://david.boxall.id.au | I make them up myself, and they
| always give me innocent pleasure.
| --HL Mencken
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