In the wake of criticism from consumers over the performance of the NBN, Telstra has announced that it will soon publish specific information on how fast the fibre-based network will be in certain areas.
As the NBN nears 50 percent completion, Telstra hopes to put an end to misled consumer expectations, with chief executive Andy Penn yesterday telling News Corp there was a lot of confusion about what customers would be getting when signing up to the network, saying “not all NBN services are the same”.
“The industry should be publishing the speeds that they are delivering across the various technologies and we’ll be absolutely preparing ourselves to be able to do that. What’s critical is that the industry comes along on that journey so there’s no game-playing,” he added.
The information will be disseminated in two parts, with Telstra expecting to provide details on national average peak performance times in April, followed by more specific data rates and connection types for personal addresses.
Rod Sims, chairman of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, has previously voiced concerns about a lack of transparency from telcos, following an ACCC consultation that wrapped in August reportedly observing that broadband retail service providers had not readily provided consumers detailed information on the speed and performance of fixed broadband services and plans.
Fixed broadband speeds can be affected by several factors, including hardware, location, network traffic (peak and off-peak times) and the type of service connected to your access point, be it fibre-to-the-premises, a direct fibre connection to the house or building, fibre-to-the-node, which services many access points in a given area, or hybrid-fibre cable.
Internet connection speeds are a contentious topic in Australia, with local consumers suffering data rates even slower than some neighbouring developing countries.
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