His comments follow NBN Co’s release on Tuesday of its wholesale pricing review paper in which it says it proposes to introduce significant discounts and extra capacity inclusions across the majority of its wholesale broadband product range.

The proposed changes in the Pricing Review 2019 Consultation Paper 2 follow 12 weeks of extensive consultation by NBN Co with more than 50 Retail Service Providers and industry groups.

Welcoming NBN Co’s announcement, Fletcher said, "It is very important that we have offerings on the NBN that are suitable for budget conscious households”.

“The NBN pricing proposal contained in their Round 2 pricing consultation paper issued today will allow retail service providers to offer an entry level 12/1 product at a price of $60 per month with no monthly data download limits in the retail market – and that is likely to mean that some of the budget conscious households that to date have chosen not to take up the NBN may now have a new reason to do so.

“Of course, there’s a range of new prices across all of the speed tiers contained in the paper that NBN has put out today, and some two-thirds of users on the NBN take a 50 Mbps plan or higher.

“But it is also important that we have offerings in terms of price for the 12/1 entry level product — 12Mbps down, 1Mbps up — it is important that we have offerings in terms of price of that entry level 12/1 tier which are designed to meet the needs of budget conscious households.”