Many premises cannot even attain minimum NBN speeds: claim

Three in four premises served by the fibre-to-the-node technology — the technology which will be provided to most residents — will be unable to attain the top speeds, it emerged recently.

Labor's Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said this meant that about 6.8 million Australians would be using technology by the time the rollout was completed.

"Beyond maximum speeds, the NBN Co has also revealed that 6% of premises already connected over copper are unable to achieve even the minimum speed of 25Mbps," she said.

{loadposition sam08}"This figure suggests that over the course of the rollout up to 210,000 premises may not be able to achieve minimum speeds until either expiration of the 18-month migration window, remediation, or potentially replacement of their copper line."

Rowland said that when the government was asked what residents who were in this group could do to have their problems investigated, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield replied: "That’s an area where we expect the ACCC to investigate. I have written to the ACCC asking them to investigate such cases."

But when the ACCC was later questioned by the Senate Economics Committee, it denied that the government had made any such request, adding that in any case it was not responsible for investigating such complaints.

Rowland said, "the all-too-familiar vacuum of accountability, process and oversight under (Prime Minister) Malcolm Turnbull has created conditions where consumers unable to achieve 25Mbps are left stranded and face an excruciating and often uncertain process to get their copper line fixed.

"It's bad enough (that) three in four premises can't achieve top speeds over copper, but it’s simply unacceptable that there are many who can’t even receive minimum speeds once they are connected.

"Malcolm Turnbull cannot keep kicking his copper can down the road. He needs to step up and take responsibility for his NBN mess."