Foxtel’s Shiny NBN Packages: Comprehensive But Pricey

Foxtel has just launched itself head-first into the 21st century. The long-time cable subscription telly business has started offering its triple-play broadband, TV and home phone bundle packages to customers covered by the national broadband network (NBN). It will also let customers on existing ADSL plans to transition to the NBN without having to re-jig their contracts. However, pricing remains a sore point, with Foxtel’s NBN packages costing up to $240 a month.

At the moment, only fibre to the premise (FTTP) serviceable customers can access Foxtel over the NBN, while existing ADSL broadband bundle customers will still also have access to Foxtel’s streaming TV services. It’s an “initial push to offer NBN services”, according to Foxtel, so you can expect FTTN and likely FTTDP connections to have access to Foxtel broadband bundles in the future.

Foxtel’s unique selling proposition is that it’ll let you hook up its iQ3 set top box to the NBN and access the pay TV service’s massive list of live broadcast channels, as well as on-demand and catch-up programming. It’ll also include landline home phone services — yep, those are still a thing — and bundle a Wi-Fi modem. It’s a package clearly aimed at mainstream users and existing Foxtel customers, who want all their home network services on a single bill.

The pricing of Foxtel’s triple-play NBN broadband service is as traditionally high as you’d expect from the cable TV provider, though — new unlimited quota connections start at $111 per month on a 24 month contract with the Entertainment TV bundle at 25/5Mbps connection speed, while the 100GB plan is $10 cheaper at $101 per month for a 12/1Mbps service — although increasing the speed to a comparable 25/5Mbps brings the quota-limited plan to the exact $111/month price of unlimited. There’s also a plan with all the channels Foxtel offers, called Platinum HD, for $210/month.

Despite cheaper introductory first month pricing, Foxtel’s NBN plans are expensive. If you want a full 100/40Mbps speed Foxtel NBN broadband and Platinum HD cable TV bundle, you’ll pay a whopping $240 per month for a minimum total cost of $5625 over 24 months. That’s including a $459 saving for signing up online, which cuts out Foxtel’s standard bundle activation fee of $99, iQ3 set top box fee of $125, the first $135 month of the Platinum HD pack free, and a ‘standard’ TV service installation fee of $100 “with tech install” waived. If you’re in a new development and not already connected to the NBN, though, you might be up for a further $300 fee.

Foxtel offers two plan tiers — a 100GB light usage plan (currently doubled to 200GB) and an unlimited usage package. If you exceed your usage on the 100GB plan, Foxtel will slow your speeds to a measly 256kbps. You can see whether your house is covered by the fibre to the premises NBN and eligible for a Foxtel NBN plan here. [Foxtel]

This article originally appeared on Gizmodo.


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