Optus follows Telstra in providing refunds for NBN customers who overpaid for unattainable speeds

OPTUS has followed Telstra and says it will reimburse its NBN customers who overpaid for home internet speeds they could never achieve.

OPTUS customers who have signed up for NBN home internet deals but have not received the fast speeds they expected could be eligible to be partly reimbursed for their expensive packages.

The country’s second largest telco said it will offer refunds to thousands of customers who effectively paid for speeds that couldn’t be delivered over their type of NBN connection.

The announcement follows a similar commitment made by Telstra back in May, in which Telstra identified customers with fibre-to-the-node connections that were simply unable to achieve the advertised speeds.

“Optus is undertaking a similar process in respect of those customers where it has been confirmed that the underlying NBN service cannot deliver the speed they signed up for,” a spokesman told news.com.au.

“This is an underlying NBN copper access issue specifically for FTTN (fibre-to-the-node) and FTTB (fibre-to-the-basement) services and affects all RSPs.”

Optus declined to detail how many customers are affected but said it was “reviewing this on a national basis”. At the moment, it is also unclear as to what kind of remuneration Optus customers can expect.

“Optus is considering a range of measures for customers depending on their individual circumstances,” the spokesperson said.

The news comes as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) laid down new guidelines on Monday for telcos advertising NBN broadband services.

At the beginning of the year, the Federal Government urged the country’s top consumer watchdog to investigate Telstra and Optus to see if they had broken the law by selling expensive NBN access for speeds they knew couldn’t be achieved.

In a letter sent to the head of the ACCC, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said retailers of NBN services knew the technical capability and congestion level for each line they offered for sale and it was concerning that some ISPs may not have disclosed realistic broadband performance to their customers.

News of the letter was reported by News Corp Australia in early April. At the time Telstra said it would “play a part in ongoing” industry discussions on the matter while an Optus spokesman said the telco didn’t make speed guarantees and each speed tier it offered was “not indicative of the speed that customers will experience at all times.”

Some customers with a fibre-to-the-node connection, seen above, have reportedly not been able to achieve the top speeds they paid for. The beige port on the left is the main connection to the existing copper wires that go to a customer's home. The green port is the FTTN. Inside this box is a yellow fibre that connects the FTTN to the exchange. Termination blocks then connect to the existing copper wires inside the port on the left.

ACCC CRACKING DOWN ON DODGY ADVERTISEMENTS

The country’s top consumer watchdog has been working to enforce stricter guidelines around the marketing of home broadband services, particularly in relation to speed promises.

This morning the ACCC published guidance for retailers on how to advertise speeds for NBN broadband services, including clearly identifying typical minimum speeds during peak periods.

The new guidelines are attempt to force a shift among retailers like Telstra, Optus and TPG from advertising their services based on the maximum internet speeds that may be delivered during off-peak periods, to the speeds consumers can expect to achieve during the busy evening periods between 7pm and 11pm.

“Currently around 30 per cent of NBN customers have been sold low-speed plans, with many not realising their internet speeds may not be any better — and in some cases worse — than existing ADSL services,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

The consumer watchdog has created standard labels it would like the industry to adopt in order to give consumers better information about what sort of speeds they can expect during the evenings and better allow consumers to compare plans.

“With this guidance, if you buy a ‘Basic evening speed’ plan you should generally not expect speeds much different to your pre-NBN experience. If you buy ‘Standard evening speed’ or higher plans, you should expect certain minimum speeds during busy periods,” Mr Sims said.

The ACCC is also in the process of developing a Broadband Monitoring System which will monitor and publish the internet speeds of various retailers throughout the day to give customers a better insight when choosing a home internet plan.