Telcos commit to improving nbn experience

Australian telecoms operators have agreed to work to improve the experience of customers switching to the nbn following the rise in complaints over the migration experience.

At an industry roundtable convened by the federal government, representatives from the Communications Alliance, major operators and regulators discussed joint action to better support customers during the peak rollout period of the network.

Optus, Telstra, TPG, Vocus, nbn co, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, ACMA and the ACCC all participated in the roundtable.

The industry committed to tackling key migration issues including confusing information, customer complaints, lead times for connections and missed or rescheduled appointments.

Specific commitments include providing more practical information for customers to explain how to connect to the nbn and contractual changes to support appointment-keeping, installation completions and complaint handling.

The industry also agreed to support nbn co’s Focus on Customer Experience initiatives.

ACMA is simultaneously conducting a review into the customer experience issues involving migrating to the network.

The move came as nbn co met the rollout milestone of having 6 million homes and businesses ready for service over the network, including 2.7 million active retail services. Over the past three months, an average of nearly 100,000 premises were made ready for service per week, amounting to an additional 1.1 million premises.

Last week, nbn co revealed that it had exceeded its FY17 rollout targets, with 2.8 million premises added to the ready for service footprint. The company now has 20 retail service providers actively serving customers over the network.

“The last three years have been dedicated to getting the network on track for a 2020 delivery. We won’t be taking our foot off the pedal until we are done, but our focus on the actual end-user experience is more important than ever as we work with industry to connect the country at scale,” nbn co CEO Bill Morrow commented.

“The numbers and the momentum are important but contented end users are the key to success and we have every intention of delivering on our plan of connecting eight million happy homes and businesses by 2020.”

Follow us and share on Twitter and Facebook