Three more ISPs to compensate nbn subscribers

Three more nbn retail service providers — Dodo, iPrimus and Commander — have promised the ACCC to compensate customers who were sold speed plans that their infrastructure was incapable of providing.

The three ISPs, all wholly owned subsidiaries of Vocus Group, will offer remedies for a combined 5000 customers unable to achieve the speeds they were paying for.

Affected customers include 3384 from Dodo, 1912 from iPrimus and 565 from Commander. These subscribers will be offered options including exiting a plan with a refund and no exit fees or being moved to a lower speed tier with a refund for the excess charges.

The undertakings were made after an ACCC investigation found that between October 2015 and June 2017, the three ISPs advertised a range of speed plans offering download speeds of “up to 100Mbps” and upload speeds of “up to 40Mbps”.

But 70% of Dodo and iPrimus and 83% of Commander customers on a 100 Mbps speed plan could not receive the marketed speeds, with many unable to even receive the next lowest tier of 50 Mbps upload 20 Mbps download.

The ACCC has made acting on misleading claims about internet speeds a key enforcement priority. The agreements bring the number of ISPs committing to offering remedies to misled customers up to eight. These ISPs have now collectively agreed to compensate more than 75,000 customers.

Telstra was the first operator to commit to compensating affected customers back in November. This was quickly followed by Optus and TPG in December, with iiNet and Internode following suit earlier this month.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/kentoh

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