MEDIA RELEASE - LABOR WELCOMES STEPS BY NBN TO IMPROVE SERVICABILITY CHECKS - 30 AUGUST 2017

31 August 2017

With Stephen Jones MP, Shadow Minister for Regional Communications, Senator Deb O'Neill, Senator for NSW and Senator Anne Urquhart, Senator for Tasmania. 

Labor welcomes steps announced by NBNCo to improve the way consumers receive information about whether they can order an NBN service.

As of 24 August 2017, there were over 276,000 premises that could not order a service despite being in a serviceable area, compared to June 2016 when there were only 58,000.

The lack of transparency around Service Class 0 premises has been an ongoing source of frustration for thousands of Australians and small businesses.

Labor has advocated for a pro-active approach and we are pleased to see NBN move in that direction, on this occasion.

Whilst it’s disappointing this has taken so long, the outlined measures, if implemented correctly, should deliver a meaningful improvement.

NBN has admitted that in some cases these Service Class 0 customers can wait years to be connected and the increased transparency will help ensure NBN's "too hard" basket will be more open to scrutiny.

Consumers deserve to receive clear information about their circumstances, and when they should reasonably expect to get connected if complications arise.

Labor will continue to represent the interests of consumers to ensure they get a fair go on the NBN.