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For the last three weeks, Tristan Whitehall has been hot-spotting from his mobile phone in order to run his business.
After having the NBN installed, the owner of Complete Tennis in Bowral said his company had been operating without an internet connection for nearly a month because of the technology’s failings.
”It was fine for less than a day,” Mr Whitehall said.
“We have had a couple of technicians out who can’t fix it.”
The business owner said their online booking and automatic light systems for the courts had both been down due to the outage.
Although Mr Whitehill said he did not think he had lost too many customers from the lack of internet, getting caught in the ping-pong between the NBN and his service provider was “frustrating”.
“We haven’t been able to do any online bookings for three weeks.
“We have had Telstra out and then the NBN out, who said they have fixed what they can. Apparently now it is up to Telstra to fix the problem.”
Highlands businesses’ struggles with the NBN were discussed at a recent forum held on November 9 by the Southern Highlands Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Whitlam MP Stephen Jones, who spoke at the forum, said that the powers of the telecommunications Ombudsman must be increased in order to address the systemic issues voiced by business owners and individuals.
A spokesperson from Telstra said it was difficult for them to generalise about the connection problems people were experiencing.
“There has been high demand for NBN services in the region and the vast majority of customers have had a smooth transition however in some cases, customers may have experienced connection issues,” they said.
“We apologise for this and ask them to contact us directly so we can help to get them connected.”
Telstra recently announced it will reimburse 42,000 customers who bought home broadband plans over the NBN, after admitting that it sold thousands of customers plans with unattainable speeds.
Optus has also said it will do the same.
Do you own a business that has struggled with the NBN? We want to hear from you. Let us know here