Broadband users unhappy with government: shock survey

The survey found that only 31.6 percent of respondents believed competition was working well in broadband, while 67.9 percent agreed with the statement "the government doesn't do enough to promote broadband". Only 5.3 percent of respondents agreed that the Government's broadband policies "are a lot better than they used to be".

The survey, conducted by broadband community site Whirlpool, was promoted on Whirlpool and many broadband ISP sites.

Whirlpool said the survey results were biased towards responses from "proficient computer users and highly informed community participants" and that this improved the validity of the survey.

"These results represent the views of informed opinion leaders, and the informed consumer. These people are continually advising friends, family and co-workers on which ISP to join. Providers should pay close attention to this demographic, because the days of the uninformed consumer are numbered," said Whirlpool.

The survey also found that 82.5 percent of respondents agreed that Telstra should not own the ADSL network as well as competing with resellers.

The most common complaint users had about their broadband contract with their ISPs was the fact that ISPs could change the contract conditions at any time. Of the respondents, 74.2 percent of BigPond Cable and 69.5 percent of BigPond ADSL customers cited this as something they disliked about the contract, along with 63.3 percent of OptusNet Cable customers and 57.0 percent of TPG customers.

The survey results can be found here.