NBN Users Experiencing Numerous Drop Outs

New research shows nearly half of Aussie households connected to the NBN have experienced regular service dropouts.

This new information comes from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) preliminary data showing 49 per cent of households have reported dropouts and 28 per cent of households reported service outages.

Among all internet users, 33 per cent reported slow data speeds in general and 36 per cent reported slow data speeds in the evening with varying frequency.

For those who had NBN in the past 12 months, 31 per cent made a complaint to their NBN service provider with 20 per cent of those complaints resolved but 49 per cent remained unresolved.

When households were asked why they were dissatisfied 58 per cent said the NBN took too long to fix the problem or take action.

A spokesperson told ChannelNews the company has been ‘working hard with retail providers and industry to identify causes and implement solutions for the factors it is responsible for.’

“This week, we announced a monthly dashboard on customer experience so Australians can track our progress for themselves. This is our most recent data and shows that 89 percent of installs are done right first time, 92 percent of installations are completed on time, and 85 percent of faults are repaired on time.

“We know there’s work to do and have a strong program in place to achieve this,” the spokesperson added.

Looking at this data Nerida O’Loughlin, Chair at ACMA comments, “Both our industry information-gathering exercise and our residential household survey demonstrate that telco complaints-handling practices need to improve.”

ACMA is releasing the first of its proposed rules for handling NBN complaints which is up for public review and industry comment. The authority says it is hoping these regulations on retail service providers improve the customer experience for those with the NBN.

Read the full report here.