Having already placed Australian ISPs on notice back in July, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that it will officially begin monitoring Aussie broadband speeds from the beginning of next year.
The consumer watchdog has appointed SamKnows to the task, having already used the broadband metrics company in a two-month trial back in 2015. The contract is said to be worth $6.5 million, according to ARN.
Starting in January 2018, The ACCC and SamKnows will be monitoring 4,000 Australian homes over the course of four years. The first year will see 2,000 households take part in the program with the use of test devices to record their broadband speeds.
Expect better information
“Our Measuring Broadband Australia program is going to be a real game changer for internet users and for the broadband market, especially as consumers shop around for NBN services,” said ACCC chairman Rod Sims.
The ACCC also took the opportunity to reveal the findings of its review on NBN advertising and whether it has improved since August 2017. “We are pleased to report that Telstra and Optus have recently changed their marketing information to provide their customers with comparable information about the typical busy period broadband speeds that they can expect on various plans,” said Mr Sims.
The chairman went on to state that “the remainder of the industry continues to advertise internet plans using unhelpful speed ranges, referencing off-peak speeds or failing to provide consumers with any information about the speed of their services during busy hours.”
