The National Broadband Network (NBN) launched in 2009 with the promise of terrestrial fibre network coverage for 93% of Australian premises by 2020, but with less than two years left, research indicates the national infrastructure has fallen short.
Evidence suggests customer dissatisfaction rates are outstripping the rate of rollout, and it’s small businesses that are left to pay the price. With uncertainty surrounding the NBN service quality, Australian businesses are waiting for a reliable fibre internet connection and one that will deliver on what it promises.
The longer Australian businesses have to wait for the NBN, the longer they’re lagging behind the rest of the world which ultimately, could have detrimental effects on business productivity.
Big businesses and red tape
The big providers are the primary providers in Australia but consumers have been held hostage due to lack of competition from local, agile and customer-focused providers.
From a personal experience for working within these companies, there is only a limited ability for workers to assist customers due to red tape associated with large businesses.
Staff within large companies are required to work within the system and follow tedious and often unnecessary protocols which can lead to an unsatisfactory customer experience.
Every customer has been on hold with one of the big telco contact centres and these contact centre staff are often either ill-equipped to handle queries and outages adequately or are not invested in ensuring that the customer has the best experience.
Businesses need customisation
The problem with current Internet providers is the lack of variety and competition, as the main providers offer most businesses the same deals, regardless of their individual needs. It’s this abuse of power that allows them to dictate the market by only providing limited and generic products.
For example, large telcos will only offer a certain rate card for each different bandwidth, or a certain data amount because according to them, this is what businesses need.
But no two businesses are the same and a blanket approach like the NBN is not working. Enterprise customers need the opportunity to customise products and service, and they need to be able to speak to a person at a call centre who is not restrained by red tape.
A great example is that small creative businesses rely heavily on a strong connection due to large files needing to be shared at any one time or another, while also needing direct access to a data centre or to the cloud.
This is why businesses should look to support privately funded telcos who are not driven solely by shareholder profits, as this allows them to stay true to the primary value of delivering stellar customer service.
The FourG telecom business was founded from the sentiment that larger companies do not give consumers a real choice, but simply an illusion of choice.
In Australia, small business is big business; small businesses will look after other smaller businesses. Large businesses don’t understand small business, they don’t know how much just a few hours of downtime can affect business operations.
Most Australian small businesses are not even aware that smaller telcos servicing their areas exist. So the next time you’re not happy with your business internet service or are looking for fast fibre internet, instead of complaining about the large telcos but continuing to use their service begrudgingly, give the local small telco a chance – you may be pleasantly surprised.
Dev Oza, CEO and Sales Director, FG Telecom
