Telstra stops sale of 100Mbps NBN plans to majority of customers because infrastructure can’t support it

Telstra has moved to stop selling the fastest NBN plan to all but a few customers because the infrastructure can’t deliver the speeds you are paying for.

Telstra has announced it will stop selling the fastest available consumer NBN plan to all but a lucky minority of customers because the infrastructure can’t deliver the advertised speeds.

The telco has announced that “for the time being” it will sell only new connections on the fastest available consumer grade NBN bundle to lucky customers who have fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) connections, a Tesltra spokesperson told news.com.au.

That plan is supposed to give you speeds up to 100Mbps, but that doesn’t always happen.

This is because the less capable connections that make up the multi-technology mix (MTM) introduced in 2013 by then Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull aren’t capable of delivering those speeds.

The original NBN plan called for a lot more of these green fibre optic cables.

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The mishmash of different connection types where meant to deliver the NBN quicker and for less money.

But there are major issues with the mix of technology with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission releasing a report earlier this month revealing its latest report into the performance of Australia’s broadband internet.

It found more than 10 per cent of NBN connections were underperforming, meaning they were getting speeds closer to the bundle below the one you’re paying for.

The overwhelming majority (95 per cent) of those underperforming services were on the fibre-to-the-node connections that were introduced in the MTM.

“This data clearly shows that too many consumers with FTTN connections are not receiving the speeds they are paying for,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said at the time.

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The NBN is still rolling out

Telstra is going to stop selling 100Mbps speeds to consumers where their premise connections are unlikely to support it.

“It is often the case that customers that sign up to these plans will be subsequently notified that they cannot achieve top speed and end up downgrading to a lower plan or leaving,” a Tesltra spokesperson said.

“We want to ensure these customers have the best possible experience when connected to our plans and hope to have some news soon. In the meantime, we still offer our NBN 50Mbps Standard Plus plans to these customers.”

That plan is typically half as fast as the 100Mbps plan, but if you aren’t ever hitting those speeds anyway you may as well save the $20 a month you’d be spending for speeds you can’t get.

The change only applies to new connections, so if you’re connected to a 100Mbps Telstra NBN plan on a FTTN or FTTC connection and you’re happy with the speeds you’re getting, there’s nothing to worry about.

The trouble is there’s no real way to test the speed you’ll actually get before connecting.

“Once customers have been connected to the NBN, we have the ability to test individual services in real time and we provide retailers with updated Weekly Speed Reports based on the measured performance of the service to individual premises,” an NBN spokesperson told news.com.au.

“This enables retailers to verify that their customers are actually receiving the line speed they are paying for and, if necessary, take steps to improve service speeds, or move individual customers to an alternative plan.”

Telstra now appears to be doing just that.

It might not be the cables in the ground that are the problem though.

The internal wiring of your house is another potential factor.

NBN internal research found half the homes that had problems with FTTN connections were having them because of the wiring in the property itself.

“Download speeds on all NBN access technologies can be affected by a range of issues that can impact a customer’s broadband performance. These can range from faulty wiring within the premises, distance from their wireless router, the type and age of the modem they are using, through to how the retailer designs its network,” the NBN spokesperson added.

“Isolating telephone sockets or remediating internal wiring with the help of a licenced cabler, can rectify these issues in most cases and provide significant speed boosts.”

This slide from recent NBN earnings shows which connections 6.44 million customers are on. The minority of fixed line customers are on the good type.

Two-thirds of Australians are on 50Mbps or higher plans.

Roughly 2.75 million premises are connected to the NBN via the FTTP or HFC technologies, the one you want.

Close to 3.3 million are on the FTTN or FTTC (fibre-to-the-kerb) connections.

Do you think changing the mix of technologies on the NBN was the right choice? Have your say in the comments below.