Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 21 February 2011:

In respect of paragraph 2.1.2 of the NBN Co Limited’s Fibre Access Services: Product Overview (August 2010), which says that access seekers will have ‘…the option to add incremental CIR [Committed Information Rate] bandwidth to support “just-in-time and real-time” applications such as voice and video.’: does this mean that access seekers wishing to offer a voice only service will need to pay a premium, beyond the $24 per month entry level NBN product, to obtain a CIR product suitable to support voice services; if so, what is the minimum monthly total wholesale price that an access seeker will be required to pay for this product.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question:

NBN Co Limited has advised that access seekers wishing to offer a voice-only service will not need to pay a premium to obtain a CIR product suitable to support voice services. As stated on pages 25-26 of NBN Co’s publication, Product and Pricing Overview for Access Seekers (December 2010), NBN Co’s entry level product, priced at $24 per month, includes an optional telephone capability in the listed price.

A CIR of 150 kilobits per second will be allocated to the voice service from the total bandwidth offered as part of NBN Co’s entry level product. Traffic using this service will be given the highest network priority. Access seekers wishing to supply a voice-only service can do so using NBN Co’s entry level product and can choose to deliver the service through a data port on the network termination unit (for voice over internet protocol, or VoIP, enabled customer equipment) or through a voice port on the network termination unit (for legacy, or standard telephone service, customer equipment).