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The Board of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Limited today announced the appointment of Ms Judi Jones as the new Ombudsman. 

Ms Jones will assume responsibilities in March 2016 and will succeed Mr Simon Cohen, who has taken up a senior role with the Victorian Government. 

In making the announcement, Ms Patricia Faulkner AO, the Chair of the Board of the TIO, noted Ms Jones’ extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution, management and the law and welcomed her to the role. 

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman welcomes the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) intention to impose new rules to better protect consumers migrating to the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Australian residential consumers and small businesses made 27,195 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in the last financial year (1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017) about connection and fault issues relating to services delivered over the NBN.

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.

The TIO recommends areas where service provider obligations can be strengthened or expanded, including:

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) has welcomed the Australian Communications and Media Authority's (ACMA) direction to Sure Telecom Pty Ltd to comply with the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code.

The ACMA's investigation, which was commenced after advice from the TIO about possible non-compliance based on a TIO systemic investigation, found Sure Telecom had breached 19 clauses of the TCP Code.

Residential consumers and small businesses who experience connection issues or associated problems when migrating to the national broadband network should talk directly to their service provider as early as possible.  

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) supports the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) actions to enforce the compulsory membership of the TIO.

The TIO scheme provides a free dispute resolution service for people and small businesses who have an unresolved complaint about their phone or internet provider. Compulsory membership of our scheme ensures consumers have a pathway to resolve complaints they are unable to resolve directly with their provider.

“Project ECHO” (Excellence Complaint Handling Optimisation) is designed to enable the TIO to become a 21st Century Ombudsman by aligning the technological functions of the office to the modern requirements for effective and innovative complaint management and resolution.