It Is Time For Making Major Changes To The NBN Business Model To Improve Customer Service and Reliability.

First it is clear we have a problem with satisfaction and cost:

Canstar Blue’s 2021 NBN ratings: Australia’s fave provider revealed

Posted by Tara Donnelly 22/07/2021

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NBN in Australia: are we happy with our internet?

It’s been a trying 18 months for the NBN, with the initial rollout finally complete after nation-wide lockdowns and an increased demand for bandwidth. Although initiatives from NBN Co helped increase capacity last year and avoid congestion during the busiest traffic times, many Australians are still unsatisfied with their NBN service, particularly in terms of pricing.

31% of respondents in our 2021 survey say that they now pay more for their NBN plan than they did for their previous broadband connection, and 21% would recommend others stick to their old cable or ADSL connection for as long as possible. Around one in ten Aussies are frustrated enough to dump their connection entirely, with 11% of respondents considering switching to an NBN alternative such as home wireless.

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Full article is here:

https://www.canstarblue.com.au/internet/canstar-blues-2021-nbn-ratings/

We also don’t seem to have a wonderful service and certainly NOT was envisaged when the NBN was kicked off a decade or so ago!.

Monday, 20 September 2021 10:47

Australia ranks 55 and New Zealand 20 out of 224 in 2021 Worldwide Broadband Speed League 

By Chris Coughlan

Analysis of over 1.1 billion broadband speed tests worldwide has revealed where almost every country, territory and region sits in terms of its internet speeds.

The research was designed and compiled by Cable.co.uk, and the data gathered by M-Lab, an open source project with contributors from civil society organisations, educational institutions, and private sector companies.

Last year, the five fastest countries had download speeds around 276 times faster than the five slowest. That gap is narrowing for the first time since the study began in 2017. This year the top five are 202 times faster than the five slowest. This indicates that the fastest countries are slowing in terms of speed growth, while the slowest countries are gathering speed.

Downloading an HD movie of 5GB in size would take 2m 29s at the average speed experienced in table-topper Jersey, while it would take 22h 34m in last-placed Turkmenistan.

In Australia the average person would take 16m 51s to download the 5GB HD movie, as revealed by Cable.co.uk's interactive map. Australia ranks 55 in the world according to the results with an average speed of 40.50Mbps. In New Zealand, the same 5GB movie would take only 7m 57s to download, as they have more than double the average speed of Australia at 85.95Mbps and ranks 20th in the world.

Lots more here:

https://www.itwire.com/telecoms-and-nbn/australia-ranks-55-and-new-zealand-20-out-of-224-in-2021-worldwide-broadband-speed-league.html

With this as the background it seems to me we need to move away from an unresponsive NBN monopoly to a situation were there is the capacity for citizens to directly contact and influence the NBN and enforce some legally binding remedies in reasonably short order if they are being ‘messed about’!

Saying, in 2021, it is acceptable to wait a week for access remedies is just nonsense and the NBN should be resourced to make sure much more reasonable time-frames are the norm.

I have to say, having been an Optus HF Cable customer, I now have a service which is both more expensive, slower and less reliable. It is also clear that Optus Customer Service is less able to influence both the timing and speed of service re-instatement.

I think it is now time to subject the NBN with actual competition on both a service and cost basis where the larger providers can use their own infrastructure to service customers and bypass the NBN altogether so I can again be able to talk to my service provider directly and have my issues addressed.

Now the NBN provides coverage elsewhere it is time to subject them to real commercial competition to have them lift their game and reduce the absurd executive salaries!

What do others think?

David.