Vodafone lobs cut-price fixed wireless to lure homes away from NBN

Vodafone Australia will aggressively cut prices on its fixed wireless internet plans for the next year as it attempts to steal a slice of the broadband market back from the national broadband network (NBN).

ASX-listed TPG Telecom’s mobile brand will halve the cost of 4G and 5G home internet plans and cut the price of mobile devices by up to $600, under a major discount push designed to make the telco more competitive in the market.

TPG Telecom’s group executive – consumer, Kieren Cooney, said an increase in the number of customers using wireless products would deliver higher margins for the telco.

“[The offering] is very competitive from a customer’s point of view,” Mr Cooney said. “We can provide a really great customer experience… because it sits across our network, so there are no hand-offs.

“Hand-offs are where problems can occur…and increasingly people are becoming intolerant of that. This is a great example of where we’re able to put additional services on the networks that we’ve got, thereby being able to provide greater margin.”

Fixed wireless broadband is a type of connection that uses radio waves to provide a location with broadband internet access instead of using cables or a satellite connection. TPG Telecom has been offering a 4G fixed wireless product to customers over the past year, and announced its move into 5G fixed wireless in September.

5G fixed wireless services are seen by industry analysts as an alternative to the NBN. TPG Telecom estimated earlier this year that it could save around $50 million a year for every 100,000 customers it could entice off the NBN.

TPG Telecom now says it is gaining about 3,000 customers a week through its 4G and 5G fixed wireless products. “It’s no secret that the margins [on the NBN] are really, really thin, this allows us to get a greater margin,” Mr Cooney said.