ACCC has informed that Telstra has been caught misleading customers once again, this time by quietly reducing the upload speeds of nearly 9,000 Belong broadband users without telling them. The Federal Court has ruled that Telstra made false or misleading representations about the upload speeds of its Belong NBN plans after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took legal action.
In late 2020, Telstra downgraded customers from a 100/40Mbps plan to a 100/20Mbps plan, slashing their upload speed in half. Despite this, Telstra continued charging them the same price while pocketing the savings, as NBN Co charged Telstra $7 less per month for the lower-speed service. Customers weren’t notified of this downgrade, effectively stripping them of the ability to decide if the slower service met their needs.
Telstra admitted that 2,785 customers who signed up between 2017 and 2018 were explicitly told they were getting a 40Mbps upload speed when they weren’t. An additional 6,112 customers who signed up between 2018 and 2020 were also misled, as Telstra failed to inform them that their upload speeds had been cut. Even though Telstra acknowledged this issue in 2021 and issued a one-off $90 credit to some customers, the ACCC deemed this misconduct unacceptable.
The ACCC is now pushing for penalties, consumer redress, and other legal orders, arguing that Telstra’s actions unfairly disadvantaged thousands of customers. This isn’t the first time Telstra has been caught misleading consumers — just two years ago, the company was fined $15 million for false claims about its NBN plans.
As Australia’s largest telecommunications provider, Telstra is expected to set a higher standard. Instead, it has repeatedly chosen to put profits ahead of transparency, leaving customers paying for a service they didn’t agree to.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
