NBN was rolled out in Kenmore Hills just last month; however, instead of the residents feeling happy with the speed of their internet connection, their reaction was quite the opposite.
Unhappy Residents
Kenmore Hills resident Martin Lack has represented all 31 households on his street in their internet connection speed struggles. Having worked in the computer industry for almost 50 years, Mr. Lack definitely qualifies as their go-to guy for their internet connection woes. Living on a street that houses senior executives and business people, the residents were all using HFC, a pay-TV internet cabling since 2003.
Recently however, they were all forced to connect to the NBN. Six of his neighbours who took the plunge have nothing else to say except how bad their experience is now. He said that their internet connection has become worse compared to the speed they had before.
Mr Lack said that after 6:00 p.m. their connection takes a turn for the worse and becomes erratic. This was unlike their prior internet speed under Telstra HFC. Since availing of the 100MB NBN package through Telstra, his expectations were high. He was very disappointed upon noticing the erratic connection that he started documenting it since 1 June. He has since come to the conclusion that the connection he’s getting is less than a quarter of the plan he’s paying for.
ACCC Takes Action
This is not a new complaint, though. Last month, the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) revealed that they are formally investigating broadband retailers’ speed claims. This investigation will also let them know whether the NBN is to blame for the current issues.
As NBN rolls out in major cities, more Australians are spending a lot of money on fixed-line broadband services. However, plenty of people are complaining when they found out that the speed is far less than what was being advertised. The NBN advertised that it can deliver “lightning fast” speeds.
There has been a recorded 117% rise in official complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman since last year.
The ACCC’s investigation program will run for four years beginning late 2017. This will help them identify if the NBN is to blame or if the retailers have failed to buy sufficient capacity to accommodate households. They aim to have 4,000 households connected by the fourth year; however, in order to achieve this, they plan to choose a specific mix of users in cities and regions that use different technologies on basic and high-end packages with different retailers.