NBN Co CEO Stephen Rue emphasised how the country’s small to medium businesses fostered the acceleration of the digitisation of the economy at the Australian Chamber of Commerce webinar on NBN’s central role in lifting digital capability. But there’s more to be done.

“Businesses with fewer than 20 employees employ 46 percent of the Australian workforce and contribute a third, in fact, 35 percent, of Australia’s Gross Domestic Product,” he said.

“In the last 5 months alone, more than five and a half thousand businesses have taken up business-grade services, from a range of industries including healthcare, construction, financial services, and retail.”

The CEO said that NBN Co has already implemented a raft of new initiatives includes creating Business Fibre Zones across Australia. Because of this, premium-grade business service Enterprise Ethernet was brought to a much wider audience.

“To date, we have created 295 NBN Business Fibre Zones that are expected to cover more than 860,000 business premises across Australia. 112 of these are in regional centres,” he further added. 

“Eligible businesses...will receive their chosen speed tier at the equivalent CBD prices.”

“We have also developed a suite of business-grade products And, we have made our premium grade services more affordable, offering wholesale discounts of up to 58% for these services, depending on the type and speed of the service provided,” he also said.

“We have also got a Business Satellite Service which covers 100% of the Australian mainland and surrounding large islands as well. This means retail service providers can now deliver business-grade services to businesses that are hard to reach, with remote locations, no matter where they are.”

However, the CEO also made a plea and asked Australian Chamber of Commerce members to help people understand the enormous benefits available for businesses willing to invest in these business-grade broadband solutions.

The CEO also said that some businesses were still not leveraging the services that would benefit their business, even if there was a direct correlation between technology spending and business performance. For example, some of these businesses were still using a residential-grade service.

The CEO revealed that Telsyte's research showed that only half of the small and medium businesses have a digital strategy. Rue also said that business customers have very different requirements compared to residential customers.

“And secondly, because of their usage profile, if we are to lift the digital capabilities of Australia, I can safely say that enormous benefits are available for businesses that are willing to invest in business-grade broadband solutions.”