Will Telstra's LTE hit price parity with the NBN?

blog The controversial clause in Telstra’s National Broadband Network agreement prohibiting the telco from promoting its wireless solutions as a direct alternative to the NBN’s fibre continues to draw interest, in spite of protestations from Telstra chief executive David Thodey that the clause would only have a minor impact on his company’s operations.

In an interview this morning with the ABC’s Inside Business program, Thodey had this to say;

“The only constraint, and it’s a very, very minor constraint, is to directly put a little pamphlet in someone’s house that says, “Do not buy NBN fixed broadband, buy our wireless broadband instead. That’s the only constraint. We will be promoting our wonderful Straightway G wireless network, which, as you know, is going to an LTE (Long Term Evolution, latest standard in the mobile network technology) spectrum. Be it, what, 80 megabits per second? And we will be promoting that product very, very strongly … I don’t think it’s an issue at all.”

The interesting thing is

Now the interesting thing is, if you look at Telstra’s current pricing plans, you’ll note that its wireless offerings are not to tell the truth that different from its fixed broadband offerings when it comes to price — especially at the low end. For $19.95 a month, you can get either a 1GB Then G mobile broadband plan, or a 2GB ADSL or HFC cable plan.

It’s only when you get to the moderate and top-end of Telstra’s plans that things diverge wildly … $69.95 a month, for instance, buys you a 200GB ADSL or HFC cable plan, nevertheless for the same price you’ll only get 12GB of quota from Telstra’s mobile network.

Interestingly, even though, most people are predicting that broadband prices will rise when the NBN comes in; and the onset of LTE and Telstra’s regular quota increases on its mobile network means that pricing on the two poles or fixed and wireless broadband might in fact gradually be converging all the same. With this in mind, the question needs to be asked whether Telstra won’t need to directly promote its At once G network as a direct substitute for the NBN — because its pricing will do that for it anyhow.

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