When the big guy wants something, the big guy gets it. The little guy can’t do much about it without risking being sat on. So it goes with big companies. If they decide to move in a certain direction, consumers have little choice but to go with the flow. As the NBN Co and Telstra recently demonstrated.
The NBN Co has faced a number of problems in the past, pushing back deadlines and increasing budgets again and again. Amazingly, it met its target at the end of June, having “passed” 207,500 homes and businesses.
However, that target had been revised twice. The last time in March, the NBN Co cut the target by a third, from “passing” 341,000 homes to passing 190,000-220,000. It turns out it’s not so difficult to reach targets when you keep decreasing them.
There is also the seemingly flexible definition of “passing”. While one may think “passing” a house would mean physically connecting it to the NBN, the NBN Co defines “passing” as laying cable in the street, even when the house or apartment is yet to be connected.
Ultimatums for “frustrated premises”
Facing the issue of “frustrated premises” – where property owners refuse to allow the NBN connection, or where there is a legal issue to prevent the connection – the NBN Co has decided to lay down the law.
This laying down of the law currently involves a marketing campaign to prevent properties from becoming “frustrated”. It works like this – the NBN Co has been blitzing at-risk homes and businesses with brochures, telling residents what will happen if they fail to connect. This includes no phone or internet access, and being charged for connection in the future if they change their mind.
This basically puts residents in between a rock and a hard place. They can switch to NBN or have no connection at all. If they change their mind later – perhaps because they’re sick of having no phone or internet connection – the NBN Co will charge them up the wazoo for it.
NBN Co spokesman Andrew Sholl said the NBN was a “once-in-a-lifetime overhaul of fixed-line telecommunications in this country. It’s not unreasonable that we would make every effort to inform home owners, business people and bodies corporate about the switchover.”
Translation: “We think you should have this connection. If you don’t want it, we will penalise you.”
Telstra’s wants you… on a bundle
Telstra also has its customers’ best interests at heart. In an attempt to upgrade its landline customers onto bundles (phone line plus internet), the telco has bumped up prices of its landline packages. The monthly line rental of the HomeLine and BusinessLine plans will rise by $2, representing a 4% to 8% increase in the affected services.
These increases have been described as “access charges”, and have of course been presented as improvements. “With the introduction of new and improved bundles, we will also exit some of our older bundle discount offers. The newer packages provide bigger data allowances, family call benefits, or a mobile broadband allowance to suit a range of customer needs,” Telstra said.
Translation: Fewer people have landline-only packages, which makes it more expensive for us to run. We would prefer you move over to a bundle (and look how great they are!). If you don’t, we will penalise you.
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