Optus joins Telstra in compensating customers over NBN coverage
Optus is the latest Australian telco to offer compensation to customers amid misleading NBN-package broadband speeds.
Around 8,700 customers will be offered remedies for services between 1 September 2015 and 30 June 2017, including the Boost Max plan which promised download speeds of 100 Mbps and upload speeds of 40 Mbps.
“Optus is the second major internet provider we have taken action against for selling broadband speeds they could not deliver to their customers,” Australian Competition & Consumer Commission Chairman Rod Sims said, referring to Telstra which has also made significant commitments to compensate customers.
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Technical limitations on the customers’ fibre to the node (FTTN) or fibre to the building (FTTB) NBN connections, has resulted in consumers not being able to get the speeds that were advertised.
Optus will also have to check within four weeks of connecting a customer to a new NBN speed plan that they are getting the advertised speeds they are paying for. If it is below the advertised speed, Optus will notify the customer and offer remedies.
“Worryingly, many affected Optus FTTN customers could not even receive the maximum speed of a lower-tier plan,” Sims added. “This is a concerning trend we have seen throughout the industry and we are working to fix this.
“This undertaking is yet another step towards an industry standard of providing accurate information to consumers about the speeds they can achieve in real-world conditions, and ensuring that consumers get what they pay for.”
