Queensland’s NBN service ranked worst in Australia: ACCC report

Queensland has been named Australia’s worst state for NBN service, recording the highest number of faults and slowest repair times, according to the latest ACCC report out today.

Queensland was ranked as having the country’s worst NBN service. Picture: NBN Co

Queensland has been identified as the worst-performing state for NBN service quality in Australia, according to newly released data from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The latest NBN Service Quality and Network Performance report, covering the September 2024 quarter, highlights Queensland as having the highest number of network faults and some of the slowest service rectification times nationwide.

The ACCC report, published on Tuesday, categorises network faults into four priority levels based on the number of affected services, ranging from Priority 1, which is faults that affect more than 5000 customer services to Priority 4, which affects between 1 and 120 services.

Across all categories, Queensland reported the highest volume of faults, indicating significant ongoing issues with reliability and maintenance.

For Priority 1 major outages, Queensland recorded 84,419 impacted services, a figure far exceeding Western Australia’s 59,871 faults and Victoria’s 24,057.

Queensland also led in Priority 2 faults, affecting between 501 and 5000 services, with 28,270 incidents, higher than Victoria’s 26,584 and nearly matching New South Wales’s 29,097 faults.

For smaller-scale outages in the Priority 3 category affecting 121 to 500 services, and Priority 4 up to 120 services, Queensland recorded 278,438 and 25,075 affected services, respectively, maintaining its position among the worst-performing states.

Beyond the sheer volume of network faults, Queensland also experienced some of the longest rectification delays.

For Priority 1 faults, which should be resolved within six hours, four delays were recorded — second only to Western Australia which had six faults taking longer that six hours to fix.

Queensland also had four Priority 2 faults exceeding the 12-hour repair window/

For Priority 3 faults, where restoration is expected within 20 hours, 90 delays were reported in the Sunshine State.

In the Priority 4 category, which has a 28-hour repair target, 84 faults exceeded this time frame, reinforcing the state’s reputation for slow service recovery.

The ACCC was required to undertake the study into NBN faults which was published today, Tuesday, March 4, 2025.

The September 2024 quarter data also revealed that Queensland had a disproportionately high number of planned and emergency NBN outages.

Nationally, there were 8242 recorded disruptions, with Queensland accounting for a significant share.

The state’s Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) network was particularly impacted, contributing to 52 per cent of large-scale outages affecting more than 500 services.

The state’s vast geography and frequent extreme weather events, including cyclones, floods, and heavy rainfall, is believed to have also accounted for Queensland’s high fault rate and also posed ongoing challenges to network maintenance.

Queensland’s rapidly growing population also placed increasing demand on NBN infrastructure, particularly in expanding urban and regional areas.

Additionally, many areas still rely on ageing Fibre to the Node (FTTN) and HFC networks, both of which have higher fault rates compared to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology.

Exploring alternative connectivity options, such as mobile broadband, could also help users maintain internet access during prolonged outages.

The ACCC’s NBN Service Quality and Network Performance report is part of a broader initiative to increase transparency and hold NBN Co accountable.

It followed a disclosure directive issued in December 2024, requiring NBN Co to publish its performance data quarterly, allowing Australians to track service quality and demand improvements.

While future reports may indicate progress, the latest findings confirm that Queensland remains the most unreliable state for NBN services, highlighting the urgent need for infrastructure investment and faster response times to service faults.

Originally published as Queensland’s NBN service ranked worst in Australia: ACCC report