IT is the win rural and remote Queenslanders have been waiting for – nbn co is increasing peak downloads on Sky Muster plans by up to 50 per cent.
Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia’s co-founder Kristy Sparrow, Alpha, said the ball is now in the court of the retail service providers to pass on the extra data to consumers.
“We’re urging the RSPs to really have a think about the plans and make sure they meet regional Australians’ internet needs in terms of costs and the data limits.
“I would like to see the full increases passed on to people.
“I’m thinking positively, and I really hope that they are, but it really comes down to that affordability as well – there’s no point giving them the full data if people can’t afford the packages.”
The plans are set to become available to consumers in October this year.
Kylie Lindsay, nbn’s Queensland state corporate affairs manager, said the changes were significant.
“Under the current fair use policy there is a maximum limit wholesale of 150gb per month, that is now going to increase to 300gb per month,” Ms Lindsay said.
“What we did was, we just needed to wait until we had the satellites in the sky and had a large number of people on them.
“That’s given us the opportunity to see how they work, and look at ways that we can optimise them.”
Ms Lindsay said she had no doubt the satellites could handle the extra allowances.
“We have done a whole heap of work over the last six months to optimise those satellites,” she said.
Ms Sparrow said the announcement was an exciting development, but there was still a long road ahead.
“We’d like to see this as a small step in the right direction,” she said. “Obviously as data needs grow, we really need to keep working on it.”