Broadband monitoring needs rethink

The ACCC’s push to create the regulatory burden of a broadband performance monitoring regime should undergo rigorous cost–benefit analysis, according to the Communications Alliance.

Commenting on the report of a pilot program released by the ACCC on Friday, Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton cautioned that, without a very large sample size which represents a cross-section of all user situations, the pilot methodology was unlikely to provide reliable results.

“The growing diversity of access technologies within the nbn multitechnology mix, the need to divide the results by region and the fact that there are more than 400 broadband service providers in Australia may add up to a very expensive solution — the cost of which will ultimately fall on taxpayers or internet consumers,” Stanton said.

“Industry welcomes the opportunity to consult further with the ACCC, but that discussion should encompass the full range of options available to meet the aim of greater transparency around broadband performance.

“Options such as crowdsourcing, which has been used in the US, existing over-the-top measurement tools and other less invasive schemes should be looked at.

“We need to ensure that if a monitoring program is introduced, it is cost-effective, produces reliable data and takes account of the fact that there are factors beyond the control of service providers that can influence the results.”

The ACCC report notes that there was not a consensus view among international regulators that the monitoring programs they had introduced had brought about benefits to stakeholders.

Communications Alliance said it is preparing to undertake further customer research to better understand what performance information it is seeking and then consider an industry response to address any significant gaps that are not already addressed through existing published metrics.