Since Australia started implementing the NBN, slow internet has been a problem.
Whether you work online as a freelancer or if you own a local company and must provide your employees with quality internet, you may have to deal with the network’s issues.
Decreased Productivity And Its Consequences
According to a study by Sandisk quoted here, slow internet makes a business lose an average of one week of work time per year. Both directly and due to the resulting drop in morale, this decrease in productivity will seriously affect revenue.
If you have slow internet, you should examine and fix the causes immediately.
Why the NBN is Often Slow
The causes are complex: it’s mainly about where your workplace is located relative to the NBN node you’re using, or the CVC your provider chose to buy. With that in mind, here’s what you can do to remedy the situation:
- Check your Hardware and Software
Before you blame your provider or the NBN itself for your slow internet, make sure that both your hardware and your software are in order.
One possible cause of slow internet could be your modem or router. Test its speed, compare different ones, make sure you decide on the best possible hardware to buy.
Then make sure that the computers, tablets etc being used are in order. This includes the software running on them, as oftentimes malware of various kinds, as this article here suggests, could be the culprit – and not the NBN.
- Change Your NBN Connection
If the NBN connection itself is indeed the cause, consider changing your provider and/or looking for higher-tier NBN plans.
- Choose a Local, non-NBN ISP
The notorious issues of the NBN itself have given rise to local alternatives. These are often providers that use the 4G mobile network to deliver internet to your home instead of your mobile. They are a bit more expensive than the NBN, but if necessary the switch may be worth it.
There are also several ISPs that offer broadband connections via their own non-NBN network, usually fixed wireless. If you are in an area where one or more of these operate, you could investigate whether it makes sense to switch to them.
Conclusion
The NBN is far from perfect, and many blame its poor execution when it comes to much-needed internet speed. It’s an ongoing project, however, and the issues will most likely be fixed in time – so patience could do the trick for non-profit end-users.
But if your business is suffering from slow internet speeds, make sure to go through our checklist and look for a solution. Whether the NBN is the cause or not, a slow connection can and will prove to be a seriously bad choice over the long term.
We believe the suggestions we provided are enough for you to successfully circumvent such problems.
And hopefully, the NBN will soon enough become the reliable network it should be, and these pieces of advice will no longer be needed.
