The NBN has come under fire again after new research was revealed indicating that a third of customers would change back to their previous connection if they could.
The research from WhistleOut – Australia’s phone and Internet comparison site – has revealed varying user experiences for Australian NBN customers with one third wishing they could go back to their non-NBN service.
Two thirds of Australians are satisfied with their NBN service but a massive 32 per cent had it better before with their old connection.
Of the dissatisfied NBN users, 86 per cent said the service did not meet their expectations while 75 per cent said their NBN service was not reliable.
WhistleOut says there are a lot of factors that influence customers NBN experience but nothing more so than the available Internet speed.
And it appears most of the complaints come from customers on the lowest NBN12 plans which can achieve speeds of up to 12 Mbps.
In the WhistleOut survey the NBN12 plans performed the worst for speed, reliability and value.
“NBN12 plans may be the cheapest, but they only deliver speeds equivalent to ADSL,” says WhistleOut editor Joe Hanlon.
“If you’re about to choose an NBN service and expect it to be better than what you’ve currently got, you’d be well served getting a plan that’s NBN25 or faster.
“And while NBN Co recently announced planned pricing changes that should allow carriers to make the faster NBN50 and NBN100 plans cheaper for consumers once introduced in Q2 2018, it won’t affect the NBN12 tier.
“Our research suggests most current NBN users simply want an internet service that’s similar to their last one, which is why 80 per cent of current NBN users chose either NBN12 or NBN25 plans, and highlights the importance of the issue with NBN12 service speeds.”
WhistleOut has even called for the NBN12 plans to be cut altogether.
“We would advocate for NBN12 plans to be scrapped altogether. There are lots of good NBN25 deals available from around $60pm, which should deliver a noticeable performance improvement compared to ADSL,” Hanlon added.
“We’d like to see NBN25 become the default minimum and applaud providers like Telstra who have already taken the step to only offer speeds of 25Mbps or more, which should ensure their customers have a baseline NBN service that’s a clear improvement on ADSL.”
1 Comment
I didn’t want to leave my ADSL2+ connection in the first place. The biggest disadvantage of the NBN is that when the NBN goes down or modem stops working properly or have a blackout; is that you can’t use your landline. The person that said we had to have it like this should be in prison.