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Back in December 2013, subscription TV provider Foxtel first announced its plans to offer a so-called “triple-play” service, combining pay TV with home broadband and phone. The announcement followed a wholesale agreement being brokered with Telstra that would allow Foxtel to retail Internet and telephony services on both ADSL broadband and the NBN.
September 2014 saw Foxtel confirm that the plans were still in play, and the company has finally flipped the switch on the offering, with both existing and new Foxtel customers able to sign up from today.
The plans offer data limits ranging from 50GB to 500GB. A 50GB plan for a new customer comes with unlimited local and national calls on the home phone, along with the Foxtel TV Entertainment pack, for AU$90 a month. An existing Foxtel user can add the same data and telephony package for AU$65 a month. New Foxtel users who subscribe to a bundle will receive the Foxtel iQHD set-top box.
All packages come with the baseline Foxtel Entertainment TV combo. This costs AU$25 a month by itself and comes with 43 channels, including LifeStyle, FOX8, MTV, UKTV, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Disney Junior, Nick Jr, Sky News and CNN. Other TV channel combos can be added for additional costs, as per Foxtel’s standard TV model.
The telephony component has free local and national calls. Calls to mobile phones are charged at AU$0.35 per minute with an AU$0.49 connection fee, capped at AU$2 for the first 20 minutes. Calls to 13 and 1300 numbers are AU$0.35 per call. International call costs vary and can be found here [PDF].
Additional call packages are also available: AU$20 a month will get you unlimited calls to Australian mobiles, while AU$10 a month gets discounted international calling to selected countries.
Netgear
Foxtel broadband customers will also get the Foxtel Hub, a Foxtel-branded Wi-Fi modem. The Hub is supplied by Netgear and is based on the company’s Dual-WAN VDSL/NBN ready gateway, the VEGN2610. The Hub offers dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHZ 802.11ac Wi-Fi and a gigabit ethernet connection for users with NBN access, as well as ADSL connectivity. One specific addition for Foxtel is a dedicated iQ light on the front of the Hub, letting users know when their iQ box is online.
The company will also waive data usage for Foxtel Go and Anytime, along with video-on-demand services Presto and Foxtel Play, when these services are accessed via Foxtel Broadband.
While the company does intended to offer NBN bundles, a Foxtel spokesperson said there was no specific timeline for the launch of this, other than “later this year”.
Plan Breakdown:
For customers already subscribing to Foxtel
12-month plans
| Data Allowance | Monthly Costs | Foxtel Hub Fee | Broadband Activation Fee | Phone Activation Fee | Total Minimum Cost |
| 50GB | AU$65 | AU$110 | AU$59 | AU$59 | AU$1,308 |
| 100GB | AU$70 | AU$110 | AU$59 | AU$59 | AU$1,368 |
| 200GB | AU$80 | AU$110 | AU$59 | AU$59 | AU$1,488 |
| 500GB | AU$100 | AU$110 | AU$59 | AU$59 | AU$1,728 |
24-month plans
| Data Allowance | Monthly Costs | Foxtel Hub Fee | Broadband Activation Fee | Phone Activation Fee | Total Minimum Cost |
| 50GB | AU$65 | AU$0 | AU$0 | AU$59 | AU$2,219 |
| 100GB | AU$70 | AU$0 |
AU$0 |
AU$59 | AU$2,339 |
| 200GB | AU$80 |
AU$0 |
AU$0 |
AU$59 | AU$2,579 |
| 500GB | AU$100 | AU$0 |
AU$0 |
AU$59 | AU$3,059 |
New Customers subscribing with the base Entertainment TV package
12-months
| Data | Monthly Fee | iQHD Fee | TV Install Fee | Foxtel Hub Fee | Broadband Activation Fee | Phone Activation Fee | Total Minimum Cost |
| 50GB | AU$90 | AU$75 | AU$75 | AU$110 | AU$59 | AU$59 | AU$1,458 |
| 100GB | AU$95 | AU$75 | AU$75 | AU$110 | AU$59 | AU$59 | AU$1,518 |
| 200GB | AU$105 | AU$75 | AU$75 | AU$110 | AU$59 | AU$59 | AU$1,638 |
| 500GB | AU$125 | AU$75 | AU$75 | AU$110 | AU$59 | AU$59 | AU$1,878 |
24-months
| Data | Monthly Fee | iQHD Fee | TV Install Fee | Foxtel Hub Fee | Broadband Activation Fee | Phone Activation Fee | Total Minimum Cost |
| 50GB | AU$90 | AU$75 | AU$75 | AU$0 | AU$0 | AU$59 |
AU$2,369 |
| 100GB | AU$95 | AU$75 | AU$75 | AU$0 | AU$0 | AU$59 | AU$2,489 |
| 200GB | AU$105 | AU$75 | AU$75 | AU$0 | AU$0 | AU$59 | AU$2,729 |
| 500GB | AU$125 | AU$75 | AU$75 | AU$0 | AU$0 | AU$59 | AU$3,209 |
Edited 11.55 a.m. AEDT: Added plan tables, additional telephony information, plus specs and image for the Foxtel Hub.
