It seems most of us have no clue about the nbn

You may have noticed a sudden spike in NBN advertising just lately, as the company responds to market research which says most of us have no clue and little interest in the upgraded network.

 The latest NBN advertisement is aimed at regional Australia and promotes the educational benefits of faster internet speeds.

Latest TV ad aims to inspire connections

NBN chief customer officer, John Simon, said NBN wanted to shift from being thought of as a “utility function”, to a brand which is regarded as "visionary and inspiring." But the end game is getting us to all join the NBN.

“Getting people to think about the benefits of the NBN is also intended to inspire families and businesses to connect. So the campaign really complements the marketing efforts of retail telecommunications companies that are selling NBN packages to consumers.”

No clue and little interest

Inspiring us to connect is becoming increasingly important as more premises move towards the 'disconnection phase', which occurs 18 months after NBN becomes available in an area.

So far it seems that many of us have shown little interest in the arrival of the upgraded network. Two pieces of research undertaken in the last four months have found that most people don't know much about the NBN and quite a few of us don't care that we don't know!

iSelect research discovered

• 54 per cent of Australian households do not know how to connect to the NBN 20% believe it happens automatically and 33 per cent have no idea at all.
• 60 per cent of Australian households are not aware that they must move across to the NBN network within 18 months of it becoming available in their area.
• 47 per cent of Australians who either ‘don’t know’ who sells it or believe the service is sold by the Federal Government, State Government or NBN themselves.
• 60 per cent do not know they have a choice in NBN speed tiers on broadband plans.

   

Meanwhile research from finder.com.au discovered

• 58 per cent of Australians have no idea of the repercussions of being in an NBN-ready area.
• 10 per cent of Australians haven't checked to see if their premises is nbn ready

And nbn.co has also admitted that only 44 per cent of premises that could sign up for the nbn have so far done so. 

NBN will not fix 'problem premises' for years

Meanwhile at a Senate hearing in mid-March 2017, NBN Co. admitted that builder's engineers had been told to avoid work on "service class zero premises and focus instead on scaling the rollout."

Currently service class zero premises number around 5% of the total number of premises ready to be connected to the NBN.

NBN CEO, Bill Morrow, conceded end users could be left waiting "years" before their connection difficulties are resolved.

"Our commitment is everybody will have broadband connectivity by 2020. And the faster we can go in terms of serving as many Australians as we can is our objective," he said.

"If we had to divert a bunch of resources that would slow down the volumes to be able to handle one premise ... that isn't something we would do.

"It could well be that we're coming back to address that home next year or potentially the year after."

He said while NBN Co. 'understood' the frustration this situation causes for end users, "we are here to service the entire nation".

"Not any one individual person. So it's the collective approach that we're taking," Morrow told the committee.

"Everybody will come back and be addressed by the year 2020, and hopefully sooner rather than later for those premises that have already kicked in.

Are you NBN ready?

Check out this NBN ready tracker from finder.com.au

 Generation nbn television ad released Australia Day, 26 January 2017.

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