NBN Co has signed up the first 12 retail service providers (RSPs)  to participate in end-user trials across the five first release sites on the Australian mainland.

 

The 12 RSPs that have signed to take part in the trial are: AAPT, AARNet, Comscentre, Exetel, iiNet, Internode, iPrimus, Nextgen Networks, Optus, Platform Networks, SkyMesh and Telstra.

 

NBN Co Head of Product Development and Sales, Jim Hassell, said the RSPs included small and large-scale service providers and represent over 95 percent of the market in the first release sites.

 

Mr Hassell said that of the 12 RSPs who have signed with NBN Co, four have already been through the on-boarding process and are NBN-ready. They are iiNet, Internode, iPrimus and Telstra.

 

These four RSPs are expected to be the first to connect customers to the national broadband network on mainland Australia when they begin connecting customers as part of the end-user trial to begin in Armidale in the near future.

Armidale in NSW is one of five first release sites on the Australian mainland, and the first site to commence testing of the new network.

 

The trial will extend to the other first release sites in the months following to eventually cover several hundred end-users.

 

The four initial RSPs working with NBN Co in the test site phase will be running preliminary tests over the network and selecting a limited number of their existing end-users to take part in the trial.

The remaining eight RSPs that have signed with NBN Co to offer services over the network: AAPT, AARNnet, Comscentre, Exetel, Nextgen Networks, Optus, Platform Networks, and SkyMesh, will now begin the on-boarding process in preparation for participation in the first release site end-user trials.

The NBN Co on-boarding program is a process by which NBN Co works with RSPs to prepare them for accessing the network effectively and efficiently.