ACCC: NBN = More Consumer Ripoffs So Let's Consult the People (Again)

Diji1 on 27/07/2016 - 14:48

The ACCC has released a discussion paper(?) once again seeking views regarding the behavior of Australian broadband providers ripping off consumers thanks to toothless advertising and marketing legislation.

ACCC head honcho Rod Sims says: “Consumers are being presented with little information or vague claims like ‘boost’ and ‘fast’, or just pictures in advertising of athletes or animals. Consumers need accurate information about broadband speed and performance so that they can understand if what they are being offered will actually meet their needs”.

We can only hope that one of the parties isn't recently elected Telstra employee Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull who took the extraordinary action of sending letters to the ACCC claiming that lower prices are bad for consumers so therefore the ACCC should not force Telstra to lower wholesale prices. I say letters because he did this on two seperate occasions. He really, really wants you paying more for internet in spite of his blabberings about the supposed "free market" delivering lower prices.

Luckily the ACCC ignored the idiot.

https://consultation.accc.gov.au/communications-1/consultati…

http://accc.gov.au/system/files/Letter%20to%20ACCC%20from%20…

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Comments

  • macrocephalic on 27/07/2016 - 14:58
    +5

    Honestly, I've reached exhaustion with all things NBN. It's done, the libs have successfully locked in 20th century internet in Australia for the foreseeable future. This new monopoly will be sold off in a decade or so - and I'll be utterly amazed if it doesn't get sold to Telstra. We're going to be back in the same position we were 10 years ago.

    If you work in the tech industry, now is a good time to consider your emigration options. New Zealand is looking ok at the moment, it's basically just a smaller, prettier Australia with better internet.

    • scupper on 27/07/2016 - 16:37
      +2

      I guess New Zealanders think Australia is just a bigger, uglier New Zealand then?

    • mattyman on 28/07/2016 - 11:01

      Sweden looks nice.

  • Blottski on 27/07/2016 - 15:35
    +1

    the whole NBN was a crock from the beginning .

    The closest town to me haven't even got ADSL and aren't anywhere close to getting it either.

    I'm 7kms from exchange and luckily get 2.5 down. I'm one of the lucky ones out where we are.

    Just amazed that the burbs get the NBN update when they already have perfectly good ADSL and places that don't have ADSL at all won't get NBN until 2020.

    • dasher86 on 27/07/2016 - 16:30

      I'm 5km from the exchange living in basically Melbourne metro.
      NBN couldn't come fast enough.
      I'm looking into other alternatives at the moment.
      Basically i get 2.5 down as well.

    • scupper on 27/07/2016 - 16:34

      That's what you get when you want to reuse existing infrastructure, those that have it currently get serviced first. The FTTP model had a lot more concessions for regional areas because the independent senators argued for them, something that voters didn't seem to find important enough in the subsequent elections.

    • thrownaway on 28/07/2016 - 11:51

      Blottski you sound like you're from the Dandenong ranges ;)

      • Blottski on 29/07/2016 - 21:46

        Hahaha… 50 mins out of Adelaide jokes aside… ;)

  • cDNA on 27/07/2016 - 15:44
    -3

    I admit I voted for the Liberal Party, but next election I will be voting Labor. I can't deal with my turd internet anymore even if it is the best optus cable can offer. I can't even upload a video to any file sharing or video sharing site like youtube without it taking days.

    I don't care if I have to pay more tax. I just hope Labor upholds the coalition's immigration policies.

    • spackbace on 27/07/2016 - 16:12

      I don't care if I have to pay more tax.

      Wow…

      • Baysew on 27/07/2016 - 16:27
        +1

        You don't read that every day in OzBargain.

    • theguyrules on 27/07/2016 - 19:08
      +1

      I agree. I can handle a tax increase if it gets the NBN happening (and happening properly).
      With an internet related job, Australia's internet is just painful.

    • mattyman on 28/07/2016 - 11:10
      +1

      I'm ok with up to 50 percent tax just as long as health and education are completely free and the unemployed are looked after.

      I also would prefer the government not to sell off our infrastructure. The government also shouldn't sell services to the public directly but should be the wholesale provider for other retail organisations. This would actually encourage competition and discourage monopolies.

  • Clear on 27/07/2016 - 16:38

    You'd be surprised at how much dark fibre there is in a lot of suburbs and cities that aren't going to be used because NBN didn't install it.

    • scupper on 27/07/2016 - 19:18

      Didn't the dark fibre happen in the US, but not here?

      • Clear on 27/07/2016 - 19:28

        Dark fibre is not in use or privately owned. The former being very common.

        • scupper on 27/07/2016 - 19:39

          I meant the massive investment in fibre were pretty much all US-based. I wasn't aware if Aus had the same.

  • BuyoTheCat on 27/07/2016 - 17:07
    +2

    voting in a political party based on their delivery of broadband internet is a little sad isnt it?

    • spackbace on 27/07/2016 - 17:24

      Yeah but I saw a lot of that on Facebook :/

    • MrMcHairyHead on 27/07/2016 - 18:24
      +1

      It's one the most important infrastructure projects ever and it's essential to Australia's economy. No, that's not silly. It's common sense.

      • spackbace on 27/07/2016 - 18:26
        +2

        An economy which could get severely fked up by a government that doesn't know how to close the wallet.

    • scupper on 27/07/2016 - 18:46

      Well it is a million times more visionary than "boring government". :)

  • NeoBeum on 27/07/2016 - 19:11
    +1

    With respect to the "Standard/Tier 1/Basic/Bronze/Wood/Crap/Bottom-End Predator/Loser/" connections, The NBN is a fancy acronym for VDSL. PMSL. OMG. WTFBBQPIZZA.

    • terrys on 28/07/2016 - 09:01

      That's all some may get on Fibre To The Numpties.:-/

  • [Deactivated] on 28/07/2016 - 09:12
    +1

    nbn fttn is a joke, i just had it connected, every provider said i would get between 90-100MBPS as im 100M from the node, but im getting a max of 60MBPS,
    yes its faster than the ADSL2+ i had before but its still not has fast as advertised…..

    ive gone through 2 providers now and its no different.

    • nickj on 01/08/2016 - 12:32

      Definitely not as bad as yours, but I'm in the same building, 2 floors above the telcom FTTB room, and only get max 83 MBPS on a 100 speed connection. That last 50 metres of old phone cable is such a PITA. It's gibabit Ethernet throughout the home, and brand-new fibre to the basement, but yet nobody wants to replace the 30-year-old unreliable noisy copper phone cable over the last 50 metres.

  • Jeffro on 28/07/2016 - 09:13
    -1

    Total waste of time and public money, this money should be invested in hospitals and on the unempployed, governments are here to ensure all Australians have food and shelter !!! This should be funded by the private sector, when you consider you can now get up to 100mbps on 4g network.

    • jackspratt on 28/07/2016 - 10:59
      +2

      You obviously don't understand that the real NBN, and the current MTM (Malcolm Turnbull's Mess) is being funded by government bonds ie borrowed money, and so has no financial effect on hospitals or the unemployed.

      As for the private sector ie Testra, they did such a great job up bringing Australia's broadband into the 21st century did they not?

      Finally, it is just silly to advocate a national network based on wireless.

    • mattyman on 28/07/2016 - 12:12
      +1

      You might be able to get 100mbps on wireless, but once you get 100 people downloading at the same time that figure is split up between all of those people. They will all only be getting 1mbps each. There is only so much bandwidth available in the air.

      Think of it how when you have a shower and someone else turns on a tap which drops the water pressure which ends up making your shower too hot or too cold. The total water pressure has to be divided up into two taps instead of one.

  • Dazza610 on 28/07/2016 - 11:15

    Distance is still the Major factor, either ADSL from the Exchange or Distance from the Node.
    When I had ADSL I was (still) 5kms from the Exchange & only getting 2.5 down MAX.
    With 'Fibre to the Node', we now get 24.45 down & 4.74 up On a 25/5 plan.
    The difference is I live on a corner allotment with the Node & Telstra "Dome" only 10 metres from my Router.
    Good for me… But really sucks if you live at the end of the street & utilising the same Node.
    As they say in Real Estate, Location… Location… Location…
    Stupid Government Roll-out. But what do you expect from Idiotic, Penny-pinching, Pollies that are only concerned with what will get them re-elected, and never future implications of a sub-standard system.

    • mattyman on 28/07/2016 - 12:00
      -1

      Degradation is not really a huge issue with FTTN. Being at the end of the street shouldn't degrade the signal too badly.

      • terrys on 30/07/2016 - 09:22
        +2

        "Degradation is not really a huge issue"
        The techs, ISPs and engineers who have been sharing their wisdom in the Whirlpool forums for years almost unanimously disagree with you - and the two main posters in constant support and defense of Fraudband* infamous for dissembly, dishonesty, false equivalence, and a certain propensity to drop out of any conversation once comprehensively exposed as unable to support any of their contentions until ~ 4 pages have been filled with other discussion, before coming back with the same fairy tales again.
        Unlike fibre, it is subject to electrical and magnetic interference such as induction loops, EMF pulses from switches and lightning, crosstalk, faster diminution of signal strength with distance [being just ADSL in higher frequency bands] and corruption from corrosion of the electrical joints.
        What we have is basically an extension of the DSLAMS to mini exchanges serving 3-400 houses off 2 fibres [with all the contention that entails]- and the "end of the street" is up to a kilometer away with a promised maximum speed of 25/5 [ once every 24 hours with 5 total dropouts per day being "acceptable".

        Still, if you want a description of the FTTN system from the deputy of one of the parties that introduced it, click the link…

  • Speckled Jim on 28/07/2016 - 12:40

    As they say in Real Estate, Location… Location… Location…

    And this is why the ACCC consultation is a pointless exercise. Disclaimers regarding actual speeds for services have been around for years. They are dependent on several factors including distance to fixed infrastructure.
    Most of us on OzB know 12/1 is unlikely to be exactly that. We're far enough down the broadband path that most consumers should know too.

    So who do the ACCC hope will benefit from these submissions? Seniors have been confused regarding termination of copper and the required changeover, plus the need to upgrade their phone(s). But in many areas, that horse has already bolted.

    What this really amounts to is an expectation lowering campaign by the ACCC. Sure, addressing semantics in advertising is all well and good. But no amount of lip service from watchdog-regulators will take the sting out of the reality.
    That being, getting half of what was originally promised and paying more for the privilege.

    IMHO? Telecommunications was originally provided by the Commonwealth (Telecom). If this were a fair-dinkum upgrade to that infrastructure, 12/1 should be free to all premises that currently have a fixed line service. At the very least, a UNI-V/D voice only service.

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