NBN Co signs deal to kickstart call centre

The National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) has announced that it has chosen Service Stream to operate a public contact centre in Melbourne.

Service Stream was the successful bidder from an eight company scrum for the deal.

The call centre will have around twelve employees at first, with staffing levels expected to grow "substantially" over the next year as the company prepares for its national roll-out.

"The new contact centre will become the management centre for all inbound calls and queries about the National Broadband Network. We know that people have a lot of questions about the NBN and this is just one of the avenues we will be using to communicate with the public," NBN Co general manager of external affairs Trent Williams said in a statement.

Although NBN Co isn't going to sell services directly to consumers, there is growing interest in the roll-out and what it would mean for end-users, he said.

Speaking at a Parliamentary inquiry into the NBN today, NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley said that communicating with the public about NBN Co's role is important.

"There is no doubt there is some confusion, which we are trying hard to dispel," he said. Even the basic idea that NBN Co is a wholesale company and not a retailer isn't clear to end-users, according to the executive.

"We don't provide the service. So as surprising as it may seem, there are still a lot of people in the community who assume we are going to be the replacement for the retail service provider.

"So that takes a fair bit of effort to overcome that misconception to start with and to then point people towards a retail service provider," he said. "So we've certainly learned that we need to increase our efforts in that communication."