Greens candidate for the South West Diane Evers has welcomed a report into complaints about the National Broadband Network (NBN), and demands a better outcome.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman 2016 Annual Report, released on November 17, acknowledged that there were more than 7000 fault issues reported for NBN services and nearly 8000 connection issues.
The report recognised that while complaints for mobile and landline issues are falling, complaints related to internet services are rising.
Evers said this was “simply not good enough”.
“The service being rolled out doesn’t even meet current needs and leaves no capacity for future demand.
“People cannot remain safe and healthy, properly access education, or conduct business adequately with these limitations,” she said.
Ebony Aitken, NBN WA corporate affairs manager, said only a small percentage of homes and businesses in Australia had access to what is considered today as fast internet (25Mbps or higher) before the NBN came along.
“In WA, more than 340,000 premises are now able to connect and more than 137,000 premises are active on the NBN network. These numbers are expected to double over the next year,” Aitken said.
In the South West region alone, the NBN network is now available or under construction on more than 70,000 premises.
“With this fast increase in end users and construction activity, an increase in the number of issues reported to the TIO is to be expected. Some complaints about services over the NBN are not related to the connection or performance of the network and may be about a bill or customer service.”
Although nominally a Federal Government issue, Evers maintains that is an important issue for regional communities, businesses, and residents.
“If our government is delivering services via the internet, then residents need a network that works. We were promised something much better than we have,” Evers said.
A TIO spokesperson said: “It is positive that the rate of growth in the number of active services on the NBN is greater than the growth in complaints about services delivered over the NBN”.
