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Each year, the TIO receives around 30,000 phone and internet complaints from consumers living in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia.

The TIO is uniquely placed to share its data and insights on the telco problems experienced by regional rural and remote consumers.

Complaint data shows service reliability, poor service coverage, lack of choice, and weak or damaged network infrastructure remain key concerns for consumers living in regional, rural, and remote Australia.

The direction to better protect consumers in financial hardship is a significant step toward appropriate consumer safeguards in the telco sector.  

While this is an important first step, the TIO encourages the government to continue to improve consumer protections through stronger regulation and consider the establishment of a registration scheme for telcos. 

The past year has continued to see the trend of declining complaints coming to my office. Complaints dropped 33.4 per cent in the last financial year. Telcos have continued to improve internal dispute resolution processes for their customers and this has been reflected in the complaints we receive. In particular, fault and connection complaints have decreased by 29.8 per cent compared to the previous year.

While the TIO supports strong action to disrupt scams and protect consumers, the submission raises concerns about the Government’s proposed solution:  

Complaints as a proportion of telcos’ services in operation (SIO) dropped a further 15 per cent in the September quarter, according to the Telecommunications Complaints in Context report, released today.

The result for all participating providers, 5.5 complaints per 10,000 SIO, has decreased 15.4 per cent when compared to April-June 2015 (6.5) and 20.3 per cent when compared to July-September 2014 (6.9).

All industry participants’ complaints per 10,000 SIO decreased in the period. Telstra recorded its lowest result to date at 5.5.

Download the report

The report “Helping telco consumers sign up to the right phone and internet products” found: 

The initiative was launched at the end of 2022, after the TIO began to receive higher complaint volumes as a result of the Optus data breach. The Dispute Resolution Group developed a questionnaire to obtain targeted information from consumers that would assist with more timely resolution.

This questionnaire automated the usual pre-conciliation process, cutting three steps in our process down to one, and reducing processing times by over 90 per cent.

Complaints from small businesses about their telecommunications services increased 52 per cent in the last financial year, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) reports in the latest issue of TIO Talks, published today.

More than 22,000 complaints were made in 2010-11 by small businesses unable to resolve issues with service providers. Complaints about inadequate or incorrect customer service advice, poor mobile phone coverage, broken promises and bill disputes were the most common issues.