Australia’s largest energy generator and major energy retailer AGL has decided to sell NBN plans under it’s own brand. AGL bought regional telco Southern Phone a year ago so is likely using the systems and staff acquired from that deal.
Chief Customer Officer Christine Corbett said at the launch:
“The launch of broadband products represents our first move into data and telecommunications under the AGL brand and also supports our strategic priority of growth”.
“The launch of these nbn plans is an important step to help us achieve our growth targets, which includes increasing total services to 4.5 million by FY24 compared with 4.2 million now, and average services per customer to 1.6, from 1.4 now.”
This statement seems to hint that AGL would soon offer mobile services as an MVNO, which makes sense as it’s subsidiary Southern Phone is an Optus MVNO.
There are 3 AGL NBN plans:
25/5Mbps – typical evening speed 19Mbps. Monthly cost $60 with gas/electricity or $75 without bundle discount.
50/20Mbps – typical evening speed 38Mbps. Monthly cost $65 with gas/electricity or $80 without bundle discount.
100/20Mbps – typical evening speed 76Mbps. Monthly cost $80 with gas/electricity or $95 without bundle discount.
According to Simon Downes , Editor-in-Chief of comparison site Canstar Blue:
“AGL follows energy rival Origin in launching NBN products, while the likes of Dodo and Sumo have built their own models around offering telco and energy services. These companies will all talk up the convenience of getting all utilities with the same provider, but just make sure you’re getting a good deal on each individual service, otherwise you could be paying too much for that convenience.”
At Ausdroid we agree with that, especially when you consider that the 3 AGL NBN plans offer much slower peak time performance than other NBN ISP’s.
According to our friends at Whistleout an AGL/Southern Phone NBN 100/20 plan with promise of 76Mbps evening speeds is bottom of the list eg: Telstra promises the full 100Mpbs, TPG 95Mbps and Aussie Broadband 89Mpbs. Even Dodo which is not known for being a performance NBN option promises 82Mbps!
If AGL is already your gas/electricity provider and you feel they give you the best price and service then you might consider bundling their NBN option but beware that your evening peak time speeds will most likely suffer.
