Who is responsible?
Telcos sell NBN plans with prices depending on speed and data capabilities. These companies will connect you to the NBN and fix any service problems.
NBN Co is building the NBN and the technology that connects it to your premises. You should contact NBN Co for issues relating to the damage or location of NBN equipment.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) provides a dispute resolution service. The TIO has the power to help deal with complaints you have about a telco.
We create rules for telcos to follow. These rules protect you as a customer. We do not get involved in resolving individual disputes.
You are responsible for organising any work on existing phone and data cabling in your home or office. You should work with a registered cabler to get this work done.
The rules telcos must follow
We have rules to protect you when moving to the NBN. These rules are for telcos to follow and include:
- information telcos must give you
- stay connected to the internet when moving to the NBN
- test the service is working
- how your complaints must be handled
We have other rules that also apply to telcos including:
How to complain
If you have a problem with your NBN service, you'll first want to complain to your telco. If that doesn’t fix the problem, you can take your complaint to the TIO.
We monitor and investigate the telco industry to check they are following the rules, and investigate if it appears they're not. We also track how well telcos deal with complaints through our record-keeping rules.
Common problems
We are aware of some common problems people are facing with the NBN, including:
- old service turned off before the NBN connection is ready
- not able to keep phone number when moving to NBN
- delays in getting connected to the NBN
- speeds on new NBN plan not as fast as old service speeds
- not receiving the advertised NBN top speed from telco