First three ISPs announced for the state’s high-speed broadband network.

iiNet, Internode and iPrimus will be the first ISPs to sell services on Tasmania’s national broadband network (NBN) fibre link.

The news comes as NBN Tasmania, the subsidiary of NBN Co responsible for the network rollout in the state, opens a Stage 1 proof-of-concept test centre at Aurora Energy’s Mornington building.

The facility was opened by Broadband Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, and lets ISPs test out their network set up before implementing it to active customers.

Broadband services on the fibre link are expected to be available in July.

“We’re across what’s happening with the service rollout and everything is reasonably well on track,” Internode carrier affairs manager, John Lindsay, said.

The ISP has been selling fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) products to Greenfield properties for quite some time and has no doubt the service will work just as well in developed sites. But Internode said the facility will aid to educate the public on the benefits of fibre.

"NBN Tasmania is starting to rollout to brownfield [developed residential] areas. ISPs involved will start to approach customers in those areas to try and convince them of the benefits of FTTH,” Lindsay said. “The general public is not nearly as technically sophisticated as we are and we sometime have a tendancy to assume everyone will accept that everything just works.

“A test centre like this provides an opportunity for the public, media and industry to come together in one place to demonstrate how the technology works.”

Internode also has a small customer connection department within the testing facility, which can provide training to technical staff for dealing with customer installations.

The ISP will offer existing FTTH products on Tasmania’s NBN. Prices start at $49.95 per month for 5GB of quota. Internode also supports 100Mbps services geared towards business users starting from $99.99 per month.

iiNet also has similar plans to use the same pricing it has used for fibre services offered in other parts of Australia. But iiNet chief regulatory officer, Steve Dalby, said final pricing will not be announced until a commercial contract is signed.

“We’re still in negotiations with NBN Tasmania for the commercial agreement and we’re plugging away with that,” Dalby, said. “Our expectation iis we will offer the exact same plans we do for existing fibre services in other parts of Australia, including at Point Cook, Victoria.”

iiNet fibre prices start at $49.95 per month for 5GB on-peak with 25Mbps download speeds.

Primus Telecom was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.