Its NBN ‘cherry picking’ plans have come under increased scrutiny in recent days, but TPG doesn't mention that. It says its new plans have been specifically designed to “offer customers flexibility, simplicity and market leading value.”

But tellingly, it says that the reason the deal is so good is because its existing infrastructure is also utilised.

The plans come at a time when TPG is being widely criticised, by NBN Co chairman Ziggy Switkowski among many others, for its plans to compete against the NBN (CommsWire, 9 April 2014). It has outlined ‘fibre to the basement’ broadband to half a million households in Australia’s metropolitan areas, where a loophole in the law allows it to do so.

This so-called ‘cherry picking’ challenges the NBN’s broadband monopoly, but remains a grey area until the Vertigan Committee’s report, due within three months, clarifies the situation. TPG’s new NBN plans will also raise questions about the extent to which retailers can add further value to NBN infrastructure by also utilising their own.

TPG’s NBN plans start from $59.99 per month for download speed of up to 12 Mbps, and $89.99 per month for download speed of up to 100Mbps. All plans come with unlimited data usage. They are available where the NBN is available – NBN Co is a wholesaler only.

The NBN plans include telephony options similar to TPG’s existing ADSL2+ and home phone bundling plans. “Customers can take up various call packages, such as unlimited local and standard national calls to landlines, unlimited calls to Australian mobiles and unlimited international calls to selected countries,” said TPG’s general manager Craig Levy.

“For customers’ peace of mind, all TPG’s NBN plans come with a Wi-Fi router and no lock-in contract. Our six NBN plans offer the best value for money in Australia and are made possible by TPG’s own infrastructure,” said Levy.

TPG has its own fibre connecting to NBN’s points of interconnect. It also owns substantial inter-capital bandwidth following its recent acquisition of AAPT, and the undersea PPC-1 submarine cable system connecting Australia to the international Internet.

“With domestic peering arrangements with Telstra and Optus and one of the largest fixed voice networks in Australia, we are in a privileged position to bring extraordinary value to consumers” said Levy.

“TPG is looking forward to the opportunity of introducing its popular unlimited plans to customers who previously fell outside TPG’s on-net ADSL2+ DSLAM footprint. We have experienced consistent organic growth over a number of years, which we expect to continue by capturing a share of a larger addressable market.”