At nbn, we have a very clear purpose: to lift the digital capability of Australia.

When we consider just how much the world has changed as a result of COVID-19, it’s clear how important access to high-speed connectivity has become.

Australian businesses have rapidly increased their adoption of cloud-based technologies as a means to not just survive but thrive as IT processes are reimagined and optimised to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

To help deliver access to high-speed business fibre^# to even more businesses across the nation, today, we are announcing an expansion of the nbn™ Business Fibre Initiative originally launched in September 2020, with the creation of a further 44 nbn™ Business Fibre Zones, along with significant discounts to our wholesale service charges^#### and new service guarantees.

For decades, the location of a business – whether in the city or outer metropolitan area, regional city, town or rural area – has been a determining factor in the price it pays for business-grade fibre access.

But, for eligible businesses in an nbn™ Business Fibre Zone, that’s no longer the case with business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet.

At nbn, we’re helping to level the playing field by helping more businesses than ever before participate in the national and international digital economy, by reducing the variation that existed in the wholesale cost of business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet in regional and rural areas compared to CBD Zones.^####

Benefits to business

Organisations of all sizes are increasingly using business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet to enable cloud-technologies, backup and disaster recovery, content hosting, unified communications, large file distribution and connecting office locations.^##

Cumulus Visual Effects, a leader in professional special effects (VFX) for the movie industry based out of Byron Bay, was previously challenged by the time it took to exchange large files with clients.

With its chosen plan powered by business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet, Cumulus Visual Effects can send even larger project files across the globe in under 48 hours, says James Doherty, Business Development Manager at Aussie Broadband.

“This allows them to work with customers around the world, and expand their regionally-situated base of operations into a local hub for the industry and a highly considered, globally competitive studio.”

It’s also had a positive effect on talent, says William Gammon, Founder at Cumulus Visual Effects.

“Thanks to Enterprise Ethernet, we’ve been able to continue to grow our business and attract the best talent in the process. Our team of creative VFX artists love being able to live in the idyllic Byron Bay while doing the work they love at a world-class calibre.”

Similarly, at BIG4 Easts Beach Holiday Park, business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet has helped improve the performance of the park’s internet connectivity, to the delight of visitors and leading to a direct improvement in ratings.

“The increased connectivity throughout the park has really helped us in many ways,” says Jennifer Drummond, Director at BIG4 Easts Beach.

“Our overall security has improved as we can now monitor more areas like the pool, roads and public spaces. We’ve also been able to improve our phone systems, with more phone lines now open for customers to phone in and not reach an engaged signal.”

The new nbn™ Business Fibre Zones

Aligned with Federal Government initiatives, in September 2020, nbn announced the creation of the first 240 nbn™ Business Fibre Zones.

To continue the expansion and availability of high-speed business-grade fibre to SMBs, enterprises and government, especially in regional and rural areas, 44 new nbn™ Business Fibre Zones will deliver, on demand,^# high-speed connectivity to an additional 60,000 eligible business locations across Australia.

This takes the current number of nbn™ Business Fibre Zones to 284 locations, and access to business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet to around 850,000 eligible business premises.

The new locations are:

New wholesale pricing discounts^####

To further help businesses – both within and outside of existing nbn™ Business Fibre Zones – we’re also introducing further wholesale discounts for our business-grade fibre.

For businesses previously located in Zone 3^†, which have now been incorporated into an nbn™ Business Fibre Zone, service providers will be able to take advantage of wholesale pricing discounts of up to 68 per cent.

For businesses located in any of the existing 240 nbn™ Business Fibre Zones, service providers may also benefit from wholesale pricing discounts of up to 37 per cent^‡, while for businesses located outside of an existing nbn™ Business Fibre Zone, service providers will be offered wholesale discounts of up to 58 per cent^§.

Greater fibre build cost certainty^####

Understanding how economically tough times have been and continue to be, for eligible businesses located within any nbn™ Business Fibre Zone, nbn will offer a no up-front fibre build cost to phone and internet providers when they order a business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet product.^*

Plus, if they sign up for a three-year Enterprise Ethernet service, they will have no up-front connection cost to their service provider.

Businesses located outside of an existing nbn™ Business Fibre Zone won’t miss out, either.

As part of the ordering process, these customers are often quoted for the design and construction of their required fibre extension to their premises^* with unforeseen costs, such as additional civil works, trenching and site restoration, sometimes passed on to resellers and then to end customers.

To help reduce the uncertainty, we’re introducing a new Fibre Build Quote Guarantee^§*.

This means, for locations in the nbn™ fixed line footprint, we’ll offer phone and internet providers a guarantee on eligible Fibre Build Quotes^* – we won’t pass on cost variations to resellers, helping provide them and end customers with greater certainty on their upfront costs.

And, to top it off, nbn will introduce a Service Delivery Guarantee.^***

To help customers get connected more quickly and easily, the guarantee sees us commit to service providers to deliver business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet services within 50 business days in most business locations within the nbn™ fixed line footprint.

^# business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet is only available in the nbn™ Business Fibre Zones, nbn™ Fixed Line network footprint and at limited premises served by the nbn™ Fixed Wireless and Satellite networks.

^## Customer experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn™ network, depends on the configuration over which services are delivered to your premises, whether you are using the service during the busy period, and some factors outside of nbn’s control (like your equipment quality, software, chosen broadband plan or how your provider designs its network). If your service provider has not selected a bandwidth in the highest of three classes of service available for business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet, the speeds you experience may be affected by contention on the nbn™ network, particularly in busy periods.

^### Regardless of the retail service you purchase, the actual wholesale speeds delivered by the business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet product will be less than 1000Mbps and no more than 952Mbps due to equipment and network limitations.

^#### nbn is a wholesaler and does not control costs charged by service providers. Customers should contact their preferred service provider to ask about availability and any fees and charges that may be applicable. Price points are calculated as the discounted OVC and UNI Zone charges (effective 20 September 2021), with a 15 per cent discount to Monthly Recurring Charges applied – equivalent to 36-month Term Discount or Term End Discount.

^* Fibre build charges apply under a Build Agreement and are separate to service installation charges, which will continue to apply (see the nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet Price List and Enterprise Ethernet DCR Annexure for more details). This offer is not available for most premises in the nbn™ Fixed Wireless or Satellite footprints or for most premises which have complex connections – further costs are likely to apply to these premises.

^** This is referring to nbn™ network availability which may be impacted by factors outside of the nbn™ network. Not all your faults with a retail service will relate to a fault with the nbn™ network. Faults may relate to matters in a provider’s network, the end customer’s premises equipment or network resources being accessed.

^*** The 50 Business Day Service Delivery Guarantee is not available for Premises located in the nbn™ non-fixed line footprint. The 50 Business Days Service Delivery Guarantee is also unavailable at some Premisses within the nbn™ fixed line Premises as identified by nbn. For Premises where the 50 Business Days Service Delivery Guarantee is available, nbn will provide a Committed Delivery Date that is 50 Business Days or less from the date of Order Acceptance in accordance with the terms and conditions of the WBA. The WBA terms and conditions, including exclusions in section 7 of the Service Levels Schedule, continue to apply to the Installation and Activation of an nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet product Order.

^† Zone 3 includes regional areas such as Broken Hill and Nyngan in New South Wales; Mallacoota and Myrtleford in Victoria; St George and Capella in Queensland; Mount Barker and Albany in Western Australia; Cowell and Port Augusta in South Australia; Queenstown and Rosebery in Tasmania, and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

^‡ For example, the 37 per cent wholesale pricing discount is calculated on the basis of a service provider ordering, for a business located within any of the existing nbn™ Business Fibre Zones, the symmetrical business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet High Class of Service, which offers up to 100 Mbps wholesale upload speeds and up to 100 Mbps wholesale download speeds.

^§ The 58 per cent wholesale pricing discount is calculated on the basis of a service provider ordering, for businesses in Zone 3, the symmetrical business nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet High Class of Service plan, which offers up to 100 Mbps wholesale upload speeds and up to 100 Mbps wholesale download speeds.