nbn is making some changes to its ‘check your address’ function to help consumers better understand when they can actually order a service and connect to the nbn™ network.

While internet providers often start advertising and encouraging residents to connect in advance of an area being declared “ready for service” (RFS), there is also some confusion when individual addresses within those declared areas still require further work before they can connect.

It has always been the case that there are homes and businesses in an area declared RFS that require further work before they are able to order a service. These are reported weekly in nbn's "unserviceable" figures. These homes take, on average, six months before they become ready to connect.

In a move to simplify and make clearer what RFS means for individual premises, nbn will now report on premises ‘ready to connect’ (RTC).

These changes will be visible in nbn's weekly progress report where the terms “serviceable” and “unserviceable” have been replaced by “ready to connect” and “not yet ready to connect”.

The number of premises in these two categories are added together to give the metric “premises in ready for service areas” (RFS) which will also still be used to assist the internet providers with their marketing plans and ensure the company can continue to report against its targets.

When people check their address on the nbn website and find they are not yet ready to connect nbn will also make best efforts to provide an estimated timeframe for connection. This functionality will continue to evolve as nbn works to provide more specific information for each address.

nbn will make every effort to ensure all necessary construction work is complete before a premises is declared RTC so it is very clear to those outside this category that a connection is still up to, on average, six months away.

This information will be made available on the website, and in direct mail to the address.

We expect this to improve customer experience and reduce the time between placing an order and connection.

Importantly, nbn’s goal remains to ensure all premises are ready to connect by 2020.

Brad Whitcomb, nbn’s Chief Customer Officer said:

“By introducing the new RTC status, we want to make it easier for people to know whether they can connect to the nbn™ network, or if further work required. This will remove some of the confusion experienced to date when nbn declares an area ready for service but some people are unable to connect until further work is complete.

“This is a complex rollout and we are working hard to make it as simple and seamless an experience as possible. While only a small change, we hope it makes a difference to the experience for end users”.

For more information, visit www.nbn.com.au