Choice’s latest internet satisfaction survey has found most Australians are unhappy with their internet service.

July 7, 2017

Six in ten Australians have had issues with their internet service in the past six months, a survey has found.

The Choice internet satisfaction survey found Australia is plagued by disconnections, drop-outs, connection issues and slow download speeds.

More than 75 per cent of National Broadbank Network customers surveyed said they’d had problems, while more than 80 per cent of ADSL and ADSL2 users listed varying speeds and connection issues.

“To make matters worse, some of the slowest providers also scored poorly when it comes to value for money and customer and technical support,” Choice CEO Alan Kirkland said.

Telstra, Australia’s largest internet service provider, ranked last for value for money. The company’s customer and technical support also scored below the average.

“Telstra’s poor ranking on value for money is not surprising given Choice’s investigation last year, which found consumers paid up to a 92 per cent price premium to access Telstra’s network,” Mr Kirkland said.

Dodo was another cellar dweller, with customers listing speed and customer support as the ISP’s weakest links.

“Although internet service providers, such as Dodo, might spruik ‘superfast broadband’, in reality, most Aussies who reported an issue with the NBN complained about slow speeds and connection issues,” Mr Kirkland said.

iiNet, Internode, iPrimus and Optus fared best in the survey.

“Overwhelmingly, consumers place importance on a reliable (95 per cent) and speedy (94 per cent) connection and value for money (94 per cent),” Mr Kirkland said.

However, Choice was so alarmed by the survey results the consumer watchdog has joined forces with Enex TestLab to monitor of Australia’s broadband networks.

“With so many Australians experiencing issues with their internet service, we want to get to the bottom of speed issues to make sure people can expect to get what they pay for,” Mr Kirkland said.

The survey results follow the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s half year update, which showed a 53.6 per cent increase in complaints in six months.

The dispute resolution service received over 24, 641 complaints in the second half of 2016.