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Systemic issues of poor speed, failed connections and outages have Highlands businesses fired up about the NBN.
And one of the greatest frustrations is that no-one appears to want to take responsibility for the problem.
Business owners made their frustrations clear at a forum held on November 9 by the Southern Highlands Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
About 30 business people attended the event with Whitlam MP Stephen Jones as their main sounding board.
Mr Jones said “everyone had a story” to tell about issues with the NBN.
“People are sick and tired of getting caught between the NBN and their service provider without either of them taking responsibility,” he said.
Business owners shared experiences of poor service reliability – their phone and internet cutting out several times a day, which had led to a loss of income and stress to staff.
Mr Jones said one of Australia’s largest banks gave an example of how their staff members were having to hot-spot off their mobile phones to do their jobs because of their poor NBN connection.
“If it can happen to one of the country’s largest banks… that’s a worry,” he said.
“There are three things that needed to be done going forward.
“Firstly, we need to fix the technology issues – the old copper network is not working and needs to be replaced with fibre.
“Secondly, the dodgy contracting problems need to be eradicated.
“Thirdly, we need to crack down on service providers that are selling things they cannot deliver.”
Mr Jones said an important step in fulfilling these three goals was to increase the powers of the telecommunications Ombudsman.
“People are spending hours and hours on the phone to overseas call centres, and the problems don’t get fixed,” he said.
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 refund customers.
“Now it is up to the other 70 [service provider] companies to do the same,” Mr Jones said.
Another public community forum on the NBN has been planned for the future, with details to be released.
Do you own a business that has struggled with the NBN? We want to hear from you. Let us know at charlishield@fairfaxmedia.com.au