06/09/2018
NBN!? Here is why we complain
NBN customers are five times more likely to complain about their service than non-NBN users, as frustrations continue to surround the nation's biggest infrastructure project.
Thousands of complaints were made to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman about NBN services, the most-complained about Telcos being:
Telco Complaints Increase/ year to year
Telsta 76.650 43.5%
Optus 28.766 31.2%
Vodafone 10.684 37.5%
iiNet 10.170 79%
TPG 6.995 44.9%
Sth Phone 2.068 266.7%
Primus 1.917 32.1%
Commander 1.704 25.3%
Virgin 1.354 11.6%
So what are our major complaints?
Delays to new connections is the biggest complaint.
With a workforce of close to 30,000 people digging trenches, hauling cable, climbing poles and going into people’s yards and homes, there are inevitably going to be issues. The team who digs the trench will rarely be the same NBN Co team that installs the utility box. Also, the NBN Co installers may have to come back and connect the cables to the Utility Box, and add in a new wall socket to connect the NBN Connection Box. All of this can take months.
Unusable internet and landline services are the next most popular themes.
Different areas are connected in different ways. Depending on your location, you may get a fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), fibre-to-the-node (FTTN), Hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC), fibre-to-the-basement (FTTB), fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC), Fixed wireless or Satellite (Sky Muster) connection.
When NBN Co install NEW infrastructure being FTTP, FTTB, HFC, Fixed Wireless, or Sky Muster, it’s installed parallel to the customer’s traditional phone lines and ADSL2 infrastructure. The install is low impact as the customer’s old service will work until the new service is fully operational. No ‘down time’ occurs. (Please be aware that you have to cancel your old services as soon as your new NBN services as up. Otherwise you will be charged for both!)
However, with FTTN and FTTC, NBN Co uses the customer’s EXISTING infrastructure and this is where problems arise. Unfortunately the NBN Co techs do not check the new service (build on the customer’s existing cable) at the premises. They only go to the Node, the curb side box or Pit. If the connection of the new service using the existing cable is not done correctly you lose BOTH old and new service as well! Delays of up to 7 days on NBN Co techs returning to site, cause problems not only for the customer who doesn’t have internet or landline services anymore, but for the providers as well, as they have no control over the NBN Co tech support.
Next in line are the complaints about slow speeds at some times of the day.
Anything from the type of connection running the network to the property, to the distance between a premises and the node, to the modem or population can influence how fast the network performs. Often the advertised speeds from leading service providers do not reflect the actual speeds a consumer can expect from the service. CommChoice and Vonex have provided alternatives for “higher throughput” premium NBN services, to give 3 options to our clients to allow you to choose the quality of NBN service you require. We cannot make the service run faster than what the NBN Co infrastructure can supply, but we can make it perform better once it hits our network.
Everybody is frustrated when we cannot rely on technology to stay connected, to be informed, and to do business.
This is why here at CommChoice we make it our priority to help you connect smoothly to the new technology - because when the going gets tough, the tough get going! ;-)
