Broadband monitoring could boost NBN take-up: IA

Internet Australia (IA) has suggested that a proposal by the ACCC to require broadband performance monitoring and reporting could be key to improving take-up of the NBN.

IA CEO Laurie Patton has stated that the body supports the ACCC’s proposed program, stating that it should be independent but subject to minimum requirements set down by the government.

The ACCC has since 2013 been evaluating whether to introduce a program designed to provide visibility into the performance of fixed broadband networks including the NBN.

Such a scheme would involve collecting real-world performance data as well as making summary information available to consumers to help them assess commercial offers available.

In 2015, the ACCC completed a three-month pilot program of the scheme, and last month the competition regulator called on operators to improve consumer information about broadband speed and performance in marketing and other materials.

Patton noted that while the NBN has passed 3 million premises, only 1 million have actually signed up.

“Perhaps one of the reasons why nbn is having trouble securing customers is that people are uncertain as to the sort of internet speeds they are likely to receive, especially given that there have been reports of people moving from their old ADSL service to the NBN and finding their internet running slower,” he said.

“IA has previously called on the government to undertake a review of the NBN so we certainly support the ACCC’s proposed Broadband Performance Monitoring and Reporting Program.”

Another benefit of the proposed scheme is that it would finally be able to establish the performance differential between fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) NBN services and fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) connections, Patton said.

IA has been critical of the decision to use FTTN for parts of the NBN rollout, leading to an over-reliance on Telstra’s ageing copper network. The industry body has noted that Telstra’s copper network will be obsolete within 15 years, and will be very expensive to replace with fibre.

Image courtesy of Mike Licht under CC