Government vows to review and upgrade protections for telephone and internet consumers

WHILE the National Broadband Network has copped a staggering number of complaints, its boss is talking up one the network’s hidden benefits.

THE National Broadband Network is allowing thousands of women to become their own boss and adding over $1 billion a year to the economy, a study commissioned by the company reports.

And more women than men are using broadband to start their own businesses, NBN chief executive Bill Morrow has said in a speech prepared for the National Press Club today.

Mr Morrow will use a study of social and economic changes driven by broadband — the so-called NBN effect — from analytics firm AlphaBeta to highlight the benefits of the rollout.

“Interestingly, the flexibility of having fast broadband at home seems to have encouraged more women to become their own bosses,” Mr Morrow said.

“NBN-connected women are becoming self-employed at twice the overall rate of self-employment growth in NBN areas.

“In percentage terms, these results are stunning. The number of self-employed women in NBN regions grew at an average 2.3 per cent every year, compared to just 0.1 per cent annual average growth in female entrepreneurs in non-NBN areas.

“If this trend continues, up to 52,200 additional Australian women will be self-employed by the end of the roll out due to the NBN-effect.”

NBN workers roll out cabling.

The findings will not protect the broadband wholesaler from having its customer services examined by an inquiry announced today by Communications Minister Mitch Fifield.

The review on consumer protection in the telecommunications field — mobile and fixed-line telephone services and NBN and non-NBN internet — was forced by the growing number of complaints from users.

Total complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman hit 84,914 in the six months from July to the end of December last year, figures released today show.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield speaks to media. Picture: AAP/Daniel Munoz

This was a 28.7 per cent increase on the total for the same period in 2016.

Complaints about the NBN rose from 19,683 in the first half of 2017 to 22,827 in the second half.

However, Senator Fifield said the tally as a proportion of connections fell.

The first half of 2017 complaints were just 0.8 per cent of the 2,443,133 connections. In the second half the complaints were just 0.67 per cent of the 3,385,937 connections.

Today, Mr Morrow will use the NBN-effect study to reinforce the benefits of broadband rather than the complaints.

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The economy was be boosted by $1.2 billion in 2017 through job creation, new businesses and greater productivity, the AlphaBeta study found.

“This is exciting because it excludes the economic stimulus of the NBN rollout itself. Things like capital investments, financing and the workers need to build the network have not been counted in this $1.2 billion,” Mr Morrow said.

“By the end of the rollout, this ‘NBN effect’ is predicted to have multiplied to $10.4 billion a year. This represents an extra 0.07 percentage points to GDP growth, or 2.7 per cent of the estimated GDP growth rate in 2021.

“By the end of the rollout, the NBN effect is forecast to have helped create 31,000 additional jobs.”

The government is vowing today to review and upgrade protections for telephone and internet consumers after figures again confirmed unrelenting discontent.

It promises to “improve the customer experience” after conceding “the complaints figures are simply too high”.

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Judi Jones.

Mr Fifield said the government’s three-part review of consumer protections would give telecommunications users easier means to complain and require companies to respond more swiftly.

It will be aimed at:

• Ensuring that consumers have access to an effective complaints handling and redress scheme;

• Ensuring consumers have reliable telecommunications services including reasonable time frames for connections, fault repairs and appointments, as well as potential compensation or penalties against providers.

• Ensuring consumers are able to make informed choices and are treated fairly by their provider in areas such as customer service, contracts, billing, credit and debt management, and switching providers.

Sub-contractors completing maintenance work on a mobile phone tower used by internet companies for telecommunications service. Picture: Brendan Radke.