First-of-its-kind telco report gives consumers key new information

Consumers are being given important new information to help them compare the performance of Australia’s top telcos and make more informed choices.

The Complaints in Context report, jointly released today by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) and industry peak body Communications Alliance, shows the number of TIO complaints received per telco as a proportion of that telco’s services in operation.

Five telcos – Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, iiNet and amaysim – volunteered to participate in the report.

The average number of complaints for the participating five providers was 6.9 complaints per 10,000 services in the July-September 2014 quarter – a marked improvement on the 7.6 complaints per 10,000 services recorded the previous quarter.

New complaints per 10,000 services in operation

“The report puts TIO complaint numbers in the context of each telco’s customer base, making the performance of individual telcos and the industry itself more transparent,” Ombudsman Simon Cohen said.

Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton, congratulated the five service providers that have volunteered to participate in the program.

“Customer service excellence is the new competitive battleground in Australian telecommunications, and the initiatives being taken by these service providers are borne out in the positive results in these data,” he said.

The TIO and Communications Alliance plan to release the new comparative information each quarter and have encouraged other telcos to take part. The report is at the TIO website and the Communications Alliance website.