Australia’s most complained-about ISP, Dodo, is under the eye of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission again following widespread customer reports of cripplingly slow browsing speeds over the past two weeks.

The complaints ­ denied by Dodo ­ have been at the centre of a 27-page thread on broadband Web forum Whirlpool. One user complained his Internet connection was virtually unusable, with a one-minute YouTube clip taking 25 minutes to load

Others reported being unable to access most international Web sites as well as some Australian sites.

Dodo MD Larry Kestelman told the Sydney Morning Herald that Dodo’s call centre had not seen any abnormal number of calls indicating a mass issue.

“We’ve looked into particular people who have complained of speed issues …
and the only pattern currently is that they’re all comfortably downloading 100GB or more of data [a month],” he claimed.

The ACCC reportedly said it is investigating the matter. The commission has previously tangled with Dodo ­ last year forcing the ISP to give some customers refunds and reduce monthly prices on their plans, following a number of “free offer” ads that turned out to be not so free.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has several times slated Dodo for the number of complaints it has received over its ISP service. In 2007 it scored more than 10,000 complaints ­ and in 2008 the TIO referred that matter to the Australian Communications and Media Authority which slapped Dodo with an order to comply with industry codes of practice on complaints handling and billing.