Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network The rollout of the National Broadband Network 1st Report of the 45th Parliament September 2017 © Commonwealth of Australia 2017 ISBN 978-1-76010-655-3 Secretariat Ms Ann Palmer, Committee Secretary Mr CJ Sautelle, Principal Research Officer Ms Margie Morrison, Senior Research Officer Ms Carla Ward, Senior Research Officer Ms Ophelia Tynan, Research Officer Ms Margaret Jones, Administrative Officer (to 29 June 2017) Ms Nicole Baxter, Administrative Officer (from 30 June 2017) PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Ph: 02 6277 3439 Fax: 02 6277 5809 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: www.aph.gov.au/joint_nbn This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/. Printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House, Canberra. Membership of the Committee Committee members Hon Sussan Ley, MP, Chair (from 22 June 2017) LP, NSW Mr Josh Wilson, MP, Deputy Chair ALP, WA Mr Andrew Broad MP NAT, VIC Ms Gai Brodtmann MP ALP, ACT Senator Stirling Griff NXT, SA Senator Pauline Hanson PHON, QLD Senator Sarah Hanson-Young AG, SA Mr Luke Howarth, MP LP, QLD Senator Jane Hume LP, VIC Mr Stephen Jones MP ALP, NSW Senator Chris Ketter ALP, QLD Ms Cathy McGowan AO, MP IND, VIC Mr Brian Mitchell, MP ALP, TAS Senator Deborah O'Neill ALP, NSW Senator Dean Smith LP, WA Senator Anne Urquhart ALP, TAS Mrs Lucy Wicks MP LP, NSW Former members Mrs Lucy Wicks, Chair (from 14 September 2016 to 22 June 2017) LP, NSW Senator Scott Ludlam (to 14 July 2017) AG, WA Mr Michael Sukkar MP (to 24 January 2017) LP, VIC Ms Michelle Rowland MP (to 30 November 2016) ALP, NSW Senator John Williams (to 11 October 2016) NAT, NSW Participating members Senator Malcolm Roberts PHON, QLD iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Committee membership ................................................................................... iii Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... ix List of recommendations ................................................................................... xi Chapter 1.............................................................................................................. 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Establishment of the Committee ............................................................................ 1 Conduct of the inquiry ............................................................................................ 1 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ 2 Note on terminology ............................................................................................... 2 References to Hansard ............................................................................................ 2 Structure of the report ............................................................................................. 2 Context of the inquiry ............................................................................................. 3 Broad overview of the NBN rollout ....................................................................... 5 Statement of Expectations .................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2............................................................................................................ 13 NBN Rollout Progress ............................................................................................ 13 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 13 Stated goals of the rollout ..................................................................................... 13 Status of the rollout .............................................................................................. 14 User demand, usage patterns and trends .............................................................. 24 International comparisons with the NBN rollout ................................................. 33 Committee view .................................................................................................... 36 Chapter 3............................................................................................................ 39 Overview of the NBN Customer Experience ....................................................... 39 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 39 Process of getting NBN services connected and established ............................... 40 Issues with NBN service speeds and performance faults ..................................... 52 Complaints processes and resolution ................................................................... 59 Committee view .................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 4............................................................................................................ 67 Sky Muster .............................................................................................................. 67 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 67 Customer experiences on Sky Muster .................................................................. 68 Opportunities for improving the Sky Muster service ........................................... 79 Committee view .................................................................................................... 86 Chapter 5............................................................................................................ 89 Improving the NBN Customer Experience .......................................................... 89 Introduction of broadband service or performance guarantees ............................ 91 Role of the TIO in resolving customer complaints .............................................. 94 Misleading information provided to customers and consumer education .......... 100 Chapter 6.......................................................................................................... 113 Data collection about customer satisfaction and network performance ......... 113 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 113 Customer satisfaction data captured by nbn ....................................................... 113 Complaints data collected by the TIO ................................................................ 116 Research on the customer experience by the ACMA......................................... 122 Committee view .................................................................................................. 124 Chapter 7.......................................................................................................... 127 Industry, market and regulatory characteristics of the NBN rollout ............. 127 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 127 Industry characteristics ....................................................................................... 127 Market and regulatory characteristics ................................................................ 133 Chapter 8.......................................................................................................... 143 Opportunities for the NBN to provide economic and social benefits .............. 143 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 143 Opportunities for economic growth and innovation........................................... 143 Expanding and developing the delivery of telehealth services .......................... 149 Improving digital inclusion ................................................................................ 155 Participation in education and training ............................................................... 157 Committee view .................................................................................................. 161 Chair's dissenting report ................................................................................ 163 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 163 Performance measurement ................................................................................. 163 Rollout progress .................................................................................................. 165 Meeting financial forecasts................................................................................. 168 Activations and service take-up.......................................................................... 168 Upgrade paths ..................................................................................................... 168 Sky Muster satellite services .............................................................................. 169 Global comparisons ...........................................................................................