Labor's National Broadband Network ad oversimplifies its benefits

Updated

The Australian Labor Party has launched a political advertisement about its National Broadband Network (NBN) which makes claims on cost, speed and rollout.

Claim 1: The cost

It's free for your home or business to connect no matter if you live in the suburbs, on a farm, or in the city.

NBN Co is installing fibre optical cable to 93 per cent of premises around Australia.

The remaining seven per cent, in remote and rural areas, will be serviced via satellite and fixed wireless.

To access the NBN a home or business must sign up with an internet service provider (ISP).

Once the home has signed up to the NBN through an ISP, NBN Co will send a technician to install the NBN from the street to the home.

The network links to a small box (or dish or antennae for remote and rural customers) on the outside of the home. Then a cable is brought into the house and a Network Termination Device is installed.

This functions like a modem allowing a customer to plug in their phone and internet to the NBN.

NBN Co will not charge for installing the hardware to the home, but an ISP may charge fees to connect to the NBN.

NBN Co's website says "in NBN fibre areas, you could access internet and phone services over NBN fibre for around the same price as you're paying now".

It recommends consumers contact their ISP "to see if there are any other charges such as set up or activation fees".

ABC Fact Check looked at the NBN residential fibre plans offered by four ISPs.

Optus charges a $70 connection fee when a residential NBN customer signs up to its cheapest 24 month contract (with a minimum spend of $1,410).

Telstra also requires NBN customers to sign a 24 month contract. Telstra charges a $59 activation fee.

Internode has a $99 set-up charge to connect to the NBN if a customer signs up for anything less than a 24 month plan.

iiNet has no discrete connection charge for NBN residential plans. However, to access the NBN, customers have to sign up to a 24 month contract. iiNet's lowest NBN residential plan costs $1,198 over 24 months.

The verdict

The claim that it is "free for your home or business to connect" is not the full story.

NBN Co provides access to its hardware free of charge. But an internet service provider may charge for connection, and most ISPs require a customer to sign a 24 month contract.

NBN customers will pay similar monthly charges to ADSL broadband plans currently used across Australia.

Claim 2: The speed

It’s 40 times faster than the second rate network Tony Abbott wants to build, which relies on last century's copper technology.

It is true that Labor's NBN Co fibre-optic technology can deliver download speeds of 1,000 megabits.

In contrast, the Coalition says its plan will deliver download speeds of between 25 megabits and 100 megabits.

The 1,000 megabit speed offered by NBN Co is 40 times faster than the slowest speed of 25 megabits offered by the Coalition.

However, NBN Co's website contains qualifications about delivering high speeds to consumers.

"We're designing the NBN to provide these speeds to our wholesale customers, telephone and internet service providers," the website says.

"Your experience including the speeds actually achieved over the NBN depends on some factors outside our control like your equipment quality, software, broadband plans and how your service provider designs its network."

NBN Co also says the highest speeds will be offered "in the future".

The fastest speed currently offered in NBN residential plans from Telstra, Optus, iiNet and Internode is 100 megabits. That is the same as the best speed promised by the Coalition and only four times the slowest speed.

For rural and remote customers, there is no suggestion the satellite and fixed wired technology will deliver 1,000 megabit speeds.

The verdict

The "40 times faster" claim may be true one day but is not available to residential customers now and may never be available to all customers.

Claim 3: Thousands connected

Even as you watch this video it’s being built all around the country with thousands of homes and businesses already connected.

In July NBN Co reported that 70,000 homes and businesses were using NBN services.

The verdict

This claim is true.

Topics: information-and-communication, internet-technology, federal-elections, alp, advertising, australia

First posted