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ACCAN’s Survey reveals telecommunications services are essential to small businesses but they are being let down by performance and customer service.

Man at desk checking his mobile phone

ACCAN surveyed 183 small and medium sized businesses between September – October to gain an understanding of SME’s experiences with their telecommunications providers during the pandemic.

Issues of speed, reliability, poor customer service and high costs were predominant. Of all the issues, speed and reliability was mentioned the most, with 39% of SMEs who provided feedback citing poor service performance, slow internet speeds, dropouts, outages, congestion and unacceptable latency.

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The Federal government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications is consulting on guidelines for funding proposals by the telco industry under Round 5A of the Mobile Black Spot Program (MBSP). Following our submission on the design of Round 5A, ACCAN has provided additional comments on the draft guidelines.

ACCAN supports elements of the Draft Guidelines introduced to target areas prone to natural disasters, promote competition outcomes in previously under-serviced regions and encourage active infrastructure sharing between mobile network operators and infrastructure providers.

ACCAN also advocated in favour of broadening the eligibility for funding to include:

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ACCAN submitted to the review of the ACCC’s Measuring Broadband Australia (MBA) program. Launched in 2017, the MBA measures broadband speeds on NBN Fixed Line broadband services.

ACCAN strongly advocated in favour of retaining the Measuring Broadband Australia scheme because the program has resulted in:

  • A decline in the number of consumer complaints;
  • Improved broadband performance by encouraging competition between telcos selling NBN Fixed Line broadband services;
  • enforcement action against RSPs who have made misleading claims about broadband speeds; and
  • Collection and reporting of data that has influenced policy decisions for the benefit of consumers.

ACCAN also encouraged the ACCC to expand the program to measure the performance of:

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In response to consumers experiencing long wait times and other significant customer service issues when contacting their telecommunications providers.

ACCAN commissioned Synergies Economics to develop a model to estimate the cost of consumer time that is spent trying to resolve issues with their telecommunications provider.

To extend this work, ACCAN has commissioned Colmar Brunton to collect data for use in the economic modelling prepared.

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The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications sought comments on proposals to amend part 20A of the Telecommunications Act 1997 to boost pit and pipe provision in new developments.

Currently unincorporated developers are not required to build the necessary pits and pipes to allow network providers to install telecommunications in new buildings. Whilst most developers provide the necessary infrastructure to support telecommunications, there are a small number of premises built, in areas serviced by fixed-line telecommunications networks, without telecommunications pit and pipe, leading to inconvenience and additional costs for occupants of these premises.

This problem affects up to 3,000 premises a year and comes at a cost to new occupants as they will experience a lack of service, delays in service, cost of retrofitting and the cost of interim services.

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The Australian Communication Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) welcomed today’s announced measures from the ACCC to improve the affordability of entry-level nbn plan, and to ensure that consumers are better compensated for missed nbn appointments.

“The issue of affordable broadband has never been more real for the millions of Australians who have turned to online services this year for access to healthcare, education, work, and government services,” said ACCAN CEO, Teresa Corbin.

“We’re pleased that following the ACCC’s recommendation, NBN Co have agreed to reduce the price of their entry-level access bundle. However, it is disappointing that the ACCC has not recognised that 12/1 Mbps nbn plans are not an adequate entry-level option for most consumers.

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The Department of Social Services recently released a position paper and sought feedback from the community on the development of a new National Disability Strategy. ACCAN made a submission to this consultation. Our submission was endorsed by 25 organisations and ACCAN members.

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A new report released by ACCAN today delves into young people’s experiences and issues with accessing and using phone and internet services.

We know that for many young people, phone and internet services are vital for work, study, accessing services and keeping connected with family and friends.

Our research focused on:

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The Western Australian Government recently sought feedback on a blueprint which outlines its vision and approach for making WA a digitally inclusive state.

ACCAN made a submission to this consultation and supported the blueprint’s four priority areas of connectivity, affordability, skills and design. These areas broadly align with ACCAN’s policy priorities and feedback we regularly receive about access to communications products and services. In our submission we provided a brief overview of these priority areas, with a particular focus on affordability and accessibility issues.

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The ACCC has resumed its inquiries into NBN’s access pricing and wholesale service standards. ACCAN has previously responded to these inquiries:

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ACCAN submitted a response to the ACCC’s discussion paper which commenced a public inquiry into whether the following services should continue to be declared:

  • Superfast broadband access service (SBAS)
  • Local bitstream access service (LBAS)


The SBAS and LBAS cover a range of non-NBN superfast fixed broadband networks. ACCAN is supportive of continuing the LBAS and SBAS declarations as superfast broadband networks are enduring bottlenecks. Due to a lack of infrastructure competition, without declaration consumers will be restricted in service provider choice and price.

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ACCAN submitted to the inquiry into the business case for the NBN and the experiences of small businesses.

The Joint Standing Committee sought views on the experiences of NBN consumers throughout COVID-19, network performance and NBN’s response.

ACCAN raised the following points:

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