NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow appeared before a joint standing committee on the national broadband network. Credit:Paul Smith Mr Morrow's comments are the latest salvo in an increasingly tense battle between the NBN and telcos over who is responsible for the rising level of disappointment from customers. Asked why Australians are finding no speed improvement when they switch to the NBN, Mr Morrow said telcos were automatically putting too many customers onto the cheapest plan. "The fact that we have a 12 Mbps product means that is how [telcos] are going to price the cheapest product to [advertise] on the side of a bus....The 12 Mbps product was for [voice], now its suddenly being used because it is a cheaper [broadband] product." The basic wholesale cost (which is paid by an internet retailer to the NBN) of a 12 Mbps service is $24 per month while the next speed tier, 25 Mbps, costs $27 per month. These prices do not include the cost of bandwidth, known as the CVC.

Australia's broadband blame game has left homes in limbo, but relief is finally in sight. Credit:Adam Turner Mr Morrow said it was possible NBN Co would remove the 12 Mbps product so consumers are forced onto a speed higher than today's internet, but it did not want to be "too prescriptive". According to the competition watchdog's latest market report, nearly 30 per cent of people on the NBN are on the voice-quality product. TPG talking One telco, TPG has the second-highest market share, but 42 per cent of its customers were on 12 Mbps plans and 39 per cent on 25 Mbps. It has about 15 per cent of customers on 100 Mbps.

Market leader Telstra has about 20 per cent of its NBN customers on the 12 Mbps service and 68 per cent on 25 Mbps. About 10 per cent are buying the fastest retail product at 100 Mbps. All up, this means customers are being served up a product they clearly don't like much. Internet Australia Laurie Patton. The committee also heard KordaMentha is the only external firm helping two departments monitor the government's $49 billion investment in the national broadband network. The assistant secretary for the Department of Communications' broadband implementation branch, Andrew Madsen, said it did not want to use more firms for analysis and advice because NBN Co's internal information is highly commercially sensitive. Korda Mentha was asked to conduct a forensic audit of NBN Co in 2013 by the incoming coalition government. Meanwhile the government has responded to increasing concerns about NBN Co's performance and service on Tuesday by commissioning the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to conduct market research.

ACMA called The regulator will use its formal powers under the Telecommunications Act to collect information from 21 businesses including NBN Co. It will ask these companies to provide data on fault handling, connection timeframes, whether technicians keep appointments, and if consumers can keep their fixed telephone numbers. "This information will be used to identify where customer issues most commonly arise and how those issues can be either avoided or resolved more quickly. It will also help reduce the passing of customer complaints between retailers and NBN," the Department announced on Tuesday. This comes a day after NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow lashed out at telcos for giving consumers a poor experience in a bid to keep their operating costs down. Assistant secretary at the Department of Communications, Kathleen Silleri, also said it would like the industry-funded Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) to keep track of the underlying cause of customer complaints.

There should be "some interrogation" of who or what caused the original problem, she told a hearing of the Joint Standing Committee on the NBN. Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Judi Jones Credit:Paul Jeffers The TIO, Judi Jones, recently told Fairfax Media her agency does not keep data on causes of complaints. "For the vast majority of complaints we don't know what the problem ended up being. We [only] know what the consumer told us," she said. Impractical solution

Mr Morrow said the TIO should not be tracking fault causes, even though this would help consumers know whether it or the retailer was at fault. "The TIO can't differentiate between which company is at fault," he told the committee. "It is impractical for that agency to do this. The real issue and responsibility lies with both the NBN and the retailers." Executive director of Internet Australia, Laurie Patton, welcomed the government's decision to collect more information about consumer experiences. His group believes the problem lies in the Coalition's decision to use a multi-technology mix rather than sticking to the original fibre-to-the-home plan. "They're using inferior technology employing ageing copper wires that just can't deliver, and their wholesale pricing regime is flawed," Mr Patton said.

"All up, this means customers are being served up a product they clearly don't like much". But, chief executive of Aussie Broadband, Phillip Britt, rejected the claims from larger telcos that NBN's wholesale pricing makes it too expensive to maintain fast speeds during peak periods. "That's just bullshit," he said. "If we can do it as a small internet service provider, they can certainly do it as well. They're just trying to deflect attention from their strategic choices not to provision more bandwidth." He added that NBN Co's congestion charge "is some of the most expensive bandwidth in the world", but said plans offering unlimited downloads were an "unsustainable" model on the NBN. He is also confident consumers will pay more for a faster broadband product.

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