ACCC Launches Public Inquiry Into NBN Wholesale Service Standards
Friday 3 November 2017 @ 11.04 a.m. | Corporate & Regulatory | Trade & Commerce
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced it will be holding a public inquiry into the appropriateness of NBN wholesale service standards, and whether additional regulation would improve customer experiences. The announcement follows the release of a draft report into Australia’s communications market earlier this week, which highlighted a number of issues with the experiences of NBN consumers. The report foreshadowed the announcement of the inquiry, saying “NBN wholesale service standards are precluding consumers from obtaining redress in the event of delayed connections and faults.”
In a media release, ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said:
“We are very concerned about the high number of complaints from consumers around poor customer experiences, particularly in relation to customers connecting to NBN services and having faults repaired…
Many of these complaints relate to matters set out in wholesale service level standards. We will examine whether the service levels that are currently in place are appropriate and effective.
This is important as what happens at the wholesale level often flows through to the retail level and affects customer experiences.”
Mr Sims said the inquiry would particularly focus on whether NBN CO had “appropriate incentives… to remedy service failures” and adequate levels of compensation available to wholesale customers, in order to ensure flow-on effects for the end consumer.
Mr Sims went on to explain:
“While our inquiry will focus on NBN wholesale service levels, we will examine them in the context of the supply chain. We are also concerned that some service levels at the retail level are not enforceable. If we identify other changes to aspects of the supply chain that will improve customer experiences on the NBN, we will certainly highlight them…
We will consider what wholesale service standard levels are required to improve customer experiences. We also believe increased transparency around service outcomes and clear consequences and redress options where standards are not met, by those best placed to manage the risk, will be important.”
The ACCC media release also cites figures from the annual report released by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), who reported an almost 160 per cent increase in complaints by consumers about the NBN service. NBN Co Chief Executive Officer Bill Morrow responded to the TIO’s report in a media release by saying:
“While it is fewer than 15 percent of the ‘nbn’ complaints to the TIO that are directed to NBN Co, this equates to about 1% of the number of activated premises that we are not making the experience the best it can be and we are taking this very seriously…
We can see a direct correlation between the speed of the rollout and the increase in complaints – while the business is taking this very seriously and working to improve the customer experience, it is an unfortunate reality of such a fast-paced infrastructure build…
We are working hard to maintain the balance of getting broadband to people as quickly as possible, while minimising these problems.”
Expected Timeline
The ACCC announced the inquiry on 2 November 2017. They expect to release a discussion paper in December 2017, with the due date for submissions on the paper being sometime in the first quarter of 2018. The inquiry is expected to conclude in December 2018.
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