Minister backs NBN Co's big business foray

The federal minister responsible for the National Broadband Network has defended the government-owned agency edging in on the big business communications market.

NBN Co, which has traditionally targeted its packages to households and smaller businesses, has copped some criticism for extending its offerings to large corporations.

The company has introduced new high speed, large bandwidth bundles allowing retailers to target big business and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has welcomed the development.

Addressing an economic conference in Canberra on Thursday, Mr Fletcher said Telstra had long-dominated the lucrative market.

"For too long Australian businesses have been burdened by the lack of choice they face in enterprise broadband services, leading to higher costs and inflexible contracts which ultimately affect the bottom line," he said.

"With NBN, that is changing, because now, Telstra's competitors are able to supply large corporates using the NBN fibre network."

The minister is particularly excited about his agency's "enterprise ethernet" packages.

"(This) means high speeds, delivered over a reliable, high performance network and with business grade service levels," he said.