THE rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) continues to cause friction for some of its users, with a new report from Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) revealing complaints are up by more than 150 per cent in the past 12 months.<\/p>\n
According to the TIO\u2019s 2016-17 annual report, released last week, it is the first time there have been more complaints about internet services than mobile phones.<\/p>\n
The report shows there were 27,195 complaints about the NBN \u2013 up 159 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Internet complaints overall grew 65 per cent, compared to a rise in mobile complaints of 28 per cent and landline complaints of 30 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidential consumers and small businesses still have too many complaints about their customer service, a bill or faults,\u201d Ombudsman Judi Jones said.<\/p>\n
\u201cComplaints about services delivered over the NBN more than doubled, and while this is somewhat to be expected given the accelerating rollout, the increase is a cause for concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, NBN Co chief executive officer Bill Morrow said fewer than 15 percent of NBN complaints to the TIO were directed to NBN Co, which equated to about 1 per cent of the number of premises with an activated NBN connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working with retail service providers and industry as a priority to improve these figures and the overall experience for consumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe meet regularly and have programs in place, some in isolation to deal with company-specific improvements, and others in collaboration to ensure end-to-end process are the best they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) says the high number of NBN-related complaints highlighted ACCAN\u2019s campaign for a customer service guarantee that applied to internet services, had obligations on the wholesale network as well as retail providers, and included timeframes for fixing faults and getting connected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe complaint statistics show that many consumers are being left with no connection or a service that is completely unusable,\u201d ACCAN deputy chief executive officer Narelle Clark said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not acceptable and it is clear there is an urgent need for updated consumer guarantees.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) continues to cause friction for some of its users, with a new report from Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) revealing complaints are up by more than 150 per cent in the past 12 months. According to the TIO\u2019s 2016-17 annual report, released last week, it is the first […]<\/p>\n