MELBOURNE:  NBN Co is pulling its offer of half-price Internet for a year for long-term holdouts to its network after getting a thumbs-down reaction from retail services providers.

The offer had sought to encourage fixed-line phone customers who have been resisting connecting to the NBN for the best part of two years to finally give NBN a try.

But it seems retail service providers – the operators who actually handle connections to the NBN – already had too much work on their hands, and their resistance has seen NBN Co pull the deal 2.5 months early.

An NBN Co statement says any focus on the unconnected premises is now likely to occur from “the financial year 2020-21 onwards”. And it’s not giving up on eventually signing up a good number of the holdouts. 

“NBN Co will further consider how to maximise take up of unconnected premises and re-introduce the discount in Q1FY21,” the company said.