NBN 'misses' cost consumers $15m a year, says consumer group

The Meeting Place > Hot Topics > NBN 'misses' cost consumers $15m a year, says consumer group

NBN 'misses' cost consumers $15m a year, says consumer group

4 yrs ago

Have you ever been kept waiting by NBN technicians who promised to be at your house at a designated time? If not, you’re one of a select few. NBN Co. appointments are costing consumers more than $15 million a year in lost time, according to a new analysis.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has found that NBN Co. misses an average of 320 appointments each day and that each missed appointment costs a consumer about $150 in wasted time.

Earlier this year, NBN Co. reported that its technicians missed 114,093 appointments – an average of 469 per day, between 1 July 1 2018 and 20 February 20 2019.

However, ACCAN deducted one-third of those appointments – completed either earlier or later the same day – bringing the figure down to an average of 320 missed appointments per day.

“This is simply not good enough,” said ACCAN policy director Una Lawrence who added that the process of connecting to the NBN or getting a fault fixed “can be a real pain point for people”.

“Not only do you have the inconvenience of taking time off from work to wait for a contractor,” she said, “but there’s no guarantee they’ll turn up on time or at all.”

A spokesperson for NBN Co. told The New Daily it was “committed to working with the industry to improve customer experience and will work constructively with the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) to help achieve this”.

“We understand the frustration experienced by people who have had missed appointments relating to their NBN installation and want to reassure all Australians that one of our key priorities is to work alongside the industry to deliver great experiences for people who connect to the NBN.”

11 comments

Horace Cope

4 yrs ago

I find this a bit confusing. NBN is a wholesaler which, in turn, provides to the retailer which on-sells to the public. The NBN site shows a missed technician appointment should be taken up with the provider, not the NBN. Are all of the missed appointments (114,093) by NBN or are they by the provider which has purchased bandwidth from NBN?

KSS

4 yrs ago

Yes but only after you have been connected in the first place. Before you get a provider you have to have your premises wired for it. That is the responsibility of the NBN and at no cost to the customer. NBN Co subcontracts this out to an independent contractor again NOT the provider of telecom service. In my case, our building is now onto the third contractor and still we have not had the wiring done. The main reason (after people not turning up when they say will will) is that the wiring plan is wrong. It is based on Telstra information from 1994 which is long out of date and which we won't accept! 20 months on and they still haven't fixed it so we still don't have the wiring done. No one can engage a service provider as a result!

Horace Cope

4 yrs ago

I can only talk on what I know KSS. My experience was that our provider wrote to us and told us that the NBN was available in our area and if we wished to connect to advise them. I was sent a box with all that was needed to hook up with clear instructions by my ISP and it worked. They used the existing copper wire from a node in the next street. I have had no dealings with the NBN. That is the reason I find it confusing. You have made me aware that there is a different method.

V1K1

4 yrs ago

When the NBN was installed in my suburb the FTTN contractors didn't know what I meant by FTTN or FTTP. When the FTTP contractor hooked the NBN to my premises he didn't understand the difference between FTTN and FTTP. The contractors installing the NBN didn't understand what they were doing!!!

Wikipedia contains a full history and explaination of the NBN. Have a look at the FTTN section where an NBN spokesmen explains why we have slow speeds.

ronloby

4 yrs ago

This Communication Project by Governments is the BIGGEST FAIL ever in Australian Communications History. Why is it that other Countries can have much faster Broadband than we have? I believe both NBN and Retailers are in this together to enhance their bottom lines. What is the maximum speed of the NBN? Whatever it is it should be available to ALL Customers regardless of the Retailer's decision on what they want to offer to their customers. There should be a set price for costs of Bandwith for ALL Retailers.

libsareliars

4 yrs ago

You can thank Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull for giving Australia Fraudband.

Horace Cope

4 yrs ago

I find it quite annoying when lies or half truths are allowed to be posted. The NBN was a Labor pre-election promise in 2007 at an initial cost of $15B, later revised to $43B after the election. By the time Labor lost the 2013 election, 109,862 premises had been connected which averages out at 18,300 per year. In the past year, there have been about 3 million connections. As can be seen, Labor designed the NBN and the Coalition was left to make it work.

Horace, Labor wanted fibre-to-the-node. The penny-pinching LNP opted for copper, which stuffed everything. The Coalition couldn't make a chook raffle work.

Sundays

4 yrs ago

We are with Optus. When we had a problem with our Internet, we phoned them. They arranged for an NBN technician to come out. When he failed to show on the day, we contacted Optus again. They gave us a new date and time, and this time the NBN technician (who was a contractor) came and fixed the problem. I’m sure you can all see the problems this arrangement where the provider becomes the middle man causes.

B5YCK

4 yrs ago

Abbott and Turnbull made our communications from good to 3rd world standard. Any one who wants to set up a political party to undo the damage those two did will receive a lot of votes. So at the next election don't vote what that ruling party promises, but pay them back for this NBN debacle.

The day my landline was cut I have now a phone with a lot of background buzz and intermittently the clicks which sound like being disconnected. Wished I could get my landline back. As far as computer speed is concerned, I couldn't care less.

Bushbaby

4 yrs ago

Fraudband is a good name for this travesty that has been foisted on us by the current government. The original NBN would have delivered a really good service, but as it stands today we are left with a substandard system that doesn't deliver anything like the efficiency it should. Our old ADSL was better than the system we have now and we are paying more for a lot less data. So much for progress!

NBN misfire = yet another LNP screw-up.

sainter

4 yrs ago

Exactly,yet another LNP,stuff-up,Horace Cope says the Coaltion were left to make the NBN work they failed

totally.Main reason Abbott and the penny pinching DNA of the Coaltion,so now we're left with a rubbish

internet system which will cost more to fix than inital cost Labor had for NBN.You can count on the Coaltion

stuffing up when a service for the public has to be paid for,and there are plenty of other examples to go along

with the NBN.

sainter

4 yrs ago

Exactly,yet another LNP,stuff-up,Horace Cope says the Coaltion were left to make the NBN work they failed

totally.Main reason Abbott and the penny pinching DNA of the Coaltion,so now we're left with a rubbish

internet system which will cost more to fix than inital cost Labor had for NBN.You can count on the Coaltion

stuffing up when a service for the public has to be paid for,and there are plenty of other examples to go along

with the NBN.

MarkAdel

4 yrs ago

The vast majority of home users don’t need fibre to the node. You don’t need a Rolls Royce to go shopping.

My NBN internet via TPG is fantastic, never had a problem. I get 46.5 mb/sec. Haven’t noticed any difference in my phone. Also, remember, sometimes you are at the mercy of the website at the other end.

it’s not fraud, it’s good financial management by the Government. I suspect Labor supporters wouldn’t understand that and maybe why they bitch and complain unnecessarily about our current Government.

no probs for me either.NBN even send me a text when they are going to be working in my area. How good is that!

jaycee1

4 yrs ago

MarkAdel, the whole point with getting 'fibre to the node' was that it is easier to update further down the line.
As it stands now when they need to update, to keep up with the rest of the world, it will mean costing twice as much as the current NBN has cost because they will need to redo the whole system using fibre NOT copper.
It would have been better AND cheaper to have done it right in the first place.

Oh and by the way - they knocked back Telstra for doing the NBN but Telstra then went on to do a country overseas [Singapore? I think it was] which is a LOT faster, cheaper than ours will ever be.

Suze

4 yrs ago

I've had TPG arrange NBN to do a service for me ... they were dead on time.

With 5g on the way NBN is not even used in the third world countries ... it was not properly forethought in the first place.

sainter

4 yrs ago

5G was not on the way back when NBN was started,i never heard any forethought,other than going

down the Abbott,copperhead road was going to be a cheap dud,and sure enough it is.

sainter

4 yrs ago

5G was not on the way back when NBN was started,i never heard any forethought,other than going

down the Abbott,copperhead road was going to be a cheap dud,and sure enough it is.

Banjo

4 yrs ago

The only smart comment I see here is:

"The vast majority of home users don’t need fibre to the node. You don’t need a Rolls Royce to go shopping." (MarkAdel)

Suze

4 yrs ago

If you look below you will see most people who got FTTN or ‘Fibre to the Node’ do NOT want it.... the Old Copper wires do break down.

If you look below FTTN or ‘Fibre to the Node’ is the cheapest installation option

...as to which option Mark Adel has I do not know ...perhaps he has the Rolls Royce FTTP or ‘Fibre to the Premises

Suze

4 yrs ago

For those that do NOT KNOW the difference between the variuos connection on offer.NBN offers the following FTTP, FTTN, and FTTC depending on which area you live in

FTTP or ‘Fibre to the Premises’ means fibre is connected all the way to your office or house.

FTTN or ‘Fibre to the Node’ has a fibre running to a mini-exchange or node near your premises, which is then connected from that point to your property through traditional copper line.

FTTC or ‘Fibre to the Curb’ uses a fibre connection almost all the way to your home, taking advantage of the existing copper wiring to complete the connection between your home and the curb. This is the latest iteration of this type of connection, and promises to give a faster speed to the user in comparison to FTTN.

The new roll out is FTTC or FTTP ... too bad if you already are stuck with FTTN

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NBN 'misses' cost consumers $15m a year, says consumer group

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