Is Telstra Slowing You Down? They’re Gonna Compensate 42,000 Customers for Laggy NBN Speeds

It's no secret the NBN has shown it's not what it's cracked up to be.

Telstra has committed to offering some of their customers refunds after admitting that some of their advertised speeds were misleading or straight-up false.

They have been promising NBN download speeds of 100 mb/s and upload speeds of 40 mb/s on their top plan, though many customers complained after falling short. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) began investigating Telstra's claims and found that more than half of customers on that plan were unable to reach these levels due to the limitations of their Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) and Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) set-ups. 

So, prepare yourself... Telstra will start offering refunds to customers—around 42,000 of them—who were unable to reach these speeds. Apparently, someone actually is looking out for the little guys (us).

On top of getting a refund, Telstra has agreed to allow customers to change their plans and or leave their contracts without facing any additional costs.

The ACCC's Chairman Rodd Sims was quick to praise Telstra for coming forward about this issue (despite them misleading in the first place) but explained it wasn't just Telstra at fault here.

"We are mindful this is not just a Telstra problem; it is an industry problem where consumers are often not getting the speeds they are paying for," Sims said. 

The ACCC will begin investigating other dodgy NBN internet speed claims, so if you feel like your internet service provider is ripping you off, watch this space.

Photo: iStock.com/DrAbbate