As reported in the media last week, NBNCo has announced a $700 million program to create 240 Business Fibre Zones nationally, enabling businesses to access fibre-based services at a reduced cost. NBNCo will also pre-qualify 700,000 businesses outside of these zones for no-cost fibre builds.
How Services Are Provided
The announcement has been reported by various media as “fibre connections”, however the release is related to a specific NBN product: Enterprise Ethernet. This service provides symmetric speeds of up to 1 Gbps, and requires dedicated fibre installed to the customer’s premise. Enterprise Ethernet has been developed as a dedicated premium-grade product and is priced and supported accordingly. 
Prior to the announcement, to access Enterprise Ethernet services, service providers were required to assess the customer’s location according to a set of defined zones. These were CBD, Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3, with wholesale pricing of Enterprise Ethernet increasing depending on the zone and required speed, e.g. 200 Mbps vs 1 Gbps. For most regional centres, CBD-located businesses fell into Zone 1, and other urban-based businesses were classified as Zone 2.
Interestingly, although NBNCo indicates 90% of existing Enterprise Ethernet connections incur no up-front cost, the “average” build cost is amortised into a monthly fee and is dependent on the contract term. However in some cases a feasibility study is required and a quotation is provided to the customer or the RSP acting on the customer’s behalf. How the assessment process works is a little unclear and has been referred to by some commentators as a “black box” algorithm that is not transparent to RSPs.
The New Zones
With the re-classification, many businesses in regional centres are now zoned by NBNCo as CBD. This has two major benefits: firstly, the monthly costs are significantly reduced, compared to Zone 1 or Zone 2 classifications. As NBNCo notes, the savings can be on the order of 60-70%, dependent on the customer's location. Secondly, if a provider signs up for a 3 year Enterprise Ethernet plan, there’s no up-front connection cost (although we expect there may be a cost in some cases).
NBNCo are declaring up to 240 NBN Business Fibre Zones nationally. This includes 85 regional centres where they are encouraging business-grade fibre services through flattening the previous pricing structures that favoured capital city centres. Within Queensland, the centres included in the program are Bundaberg, Cairns, Caloundra, Gladstone, Gympie, Mackay, Maroochydore, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Southport, Toowoomba, Townsville and Wurtulla - Birtinya.
To view the expanded zones, NBNCo has made a series of maps available for each regional centre. You can access your area's map on NBNCo’s Announcement Page. Summary
We see Business Fibre Zones as a positive for regional businesses, reducing the barriers and expanding the reach of premium-grade business communication services. If you are interested in further information on business-grade services, please contact us to discuss your requirements.