TIO Annual Report 2006/07

Faults

Fault complaints rose from 14,890 to 20,572 this year. They now account for 13.1 per cent of all complaints to the TIO scheme, compared with 11.7 per cent in 2005/06. Most complaints relate to delays in rectifying faults. However, the TIO also captures complaints where technicians do not attend appointments to rectify a service and, for the first time this year, complaints where services have been disconnected in error.

Internet

Complaints about faults on internet services more than doubled during the year, from 3,316 to 7,271. For the first time, internet fault complaints outstripped those for landline and were just behind those for mobile services.

Many complaints about internet faults were recorded with multiple issues, which may account for a portion of the increase in complaint numbers. However, during 2006/07 the TIO received a very high number of fault complaints about one internet service provider. In the internet faults category the company recorded 1,990 complaints, or 27.4 per cent of all internet faults complaints.

Landline

There were 5,130 complaints about faulty landline services, up from 4,158 in 2005/06. The percentage of landline faults as a total of all complaints remained static from 2005/06 to 2006/07 at 3.3 per cent.

The TIO divides landline fault complaints into Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) services and non-CSG services. The Customer Service Guarantee is a standard administered by ACMA that provides for financial compensation to be paid to customers affected by delays in telephone service connections, delays in fault repairs and missed appointments. The CSG is payable on the standard fixed line telephone service where the customer does not have more than five telephone lines.

Most complaints (93.3 per cent) about faulty landline services relate to CSG services. One fault complaint may result in a number of complaints being listed – for example, a faulty service may result in a complaint listed under the categories of Fully Unworkable, Missed Appointment, and Compensation.

Mobile

Mobile fault complaints increased from 7,416 in 2005/06 to 8,171 in 2006/07. New complaint categories introduced in 2006/07 allow the TIO to be more specific about the types of mobile fault complaints it receives and investigates. Direct comparisons with previous years is difficult because of the change of categories.

It is pleasing to note that the number of complaints received about Hutchison 3G Australia in this category has dropped significantly. In last year’s annual report, the TIO said that Hutchison accounted for 47 per cent of all mobile fault complaints and for 60 per cent in 2004/05. This year, Hutchison accounted for 34.4 per cent (2,807) of complaints in this category.

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