NBN Co technicians missed 430 appointments a day

NBN Co’s technicians missed an average of 430 appointments a day in the year to June 30 this year.

The company revealed today that while 91 percent of appointments during the last financial year “were not missed, the total number of missed technician appointments for the period 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018 was 157,268.”

NBN Co classes a missed appointment as that where a technician failed to attend a premises within the agreed appointment window, “as per the service level schedule” laid out in the wholesale broadband agreement - the commercial contract that governs service levels between NBN Co and retail service providers.

NBN Co said that despite the missed appointments, “the end user connection or end user fault rectification may still be completed within the relevant service levels” - though it did not elaborate on the extent to which this was or wasn’t the case.

The network builder said in its most recent monthly dashboard that “97 percent of homes and businesses were connected within agreed timeframes with phone and internet providers”.

The number on missed appointments provides some idea for how much NBN Co could be up for under a new regime, where it must pay $25 for every no-show, late connection or fault.

On missed appointments alone, NBN Co would have faced $4 million in rebates during the past financial year.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last week indicated it is still not happy with the rebate structure, and is canvassing whether to force NBN Co to pay daily in some instances as an extra incentive to fix long-running issues.

An NBN Co spokesperson acknowledged there had been issues for consumers.

"The deployment of the NBN access network is taking place at an incredible pace, with currently 20,000 premises services activated through a retailer service provider per week," the spokesperson said.
 
"We are committed to doing our part to help improve the experience for consumers and businesses migrating or connected to the NBN access network. 

"With customer experience as our priority, we are working closely with retailers and our delivery partners to identify causes and implement the right solutions."

NBN Co also said today that the total number of service faults in FY18 was 409,821, which it said “equates to one fault per 100 active premises per month”.

The company’s most recent monthly scorecard pointed to a slight rise in the number of faults on its network, though the proportion remained below the one per 100 premises mark.