Aussie Broadband boss slams NBN over upload speeds of high-speed plans

Aussie Broadband chief executive Phil Britt has criticised NBN Co’s access virtual circuit (AVC) higher speed plans for not having more options on upload speeds.

The plans were introduced earlier this year, following NBN Co’s price cuts to the 250 Mbps and 1000 Mbps plans. Upload speeds however are capped to 25Mbps and 50Mbps respectively.

Britt made the comments in a Reddit ask-me-anything (AMA) post, saying that the upload speeds on Aussie Broadband’s 250 Mbps and 1000Mbps plans ‘suck’ and has made it known to NBN Co many times.

“I personally think that the upload speeds on the 250/25 and 1000/50 [plans] suck, and we've told nbn this many [times]. Their business team argued that if the upload was higher it would attract too many businesses onto residential plans and they would miss out on revenue as a result,” Britt said.

“We're hoping now that the business team and residential teams at nbn have been merged together that it will be seen for the sham that it is.”

Britt also addressed his earlier comments on NBN Co’s temporary CVC boost, saying it should keep it at the same level unless risk getting either more expensive or a reduced service.

“Once the CVC boost runs out on 19 August, many providers will need to lower their CVC to a level where it impacts peak time speeds and at that point, customer experience will drop,” he said.

“Our position is that we have always provided good peak time speeds and so we will adjust retail prices before we lower peak time speeds. We believe NBN Co needs to drop CVC so that customers are not forced into higher retail prices just to enjoy the same network performance that they do today.”

Britt also revealed some usage stats, saying that Queensland has the most downloads on a per-user basis and is followed closely by Victoria. He also said one particular user was found to have downloaded 34 terabytes in one month.

“They'll probably be hearing from us soon under the fair use policy,” Britt said on the high-bandwidth user.

AussieBB also planned to expand its business with a call centre in Perth, Britt said, but had to put those plans on hold due to current travel restrictions.

“We've been looking at putting another call centre in Perth but the present travel restrictions are making it look like we'll have to stick in Victoria,” he said.