Credit: ACMA
Australian telecommunication service providers are taking an average of six days to resolve customer complaints, according to the media watchdog.
Between October to December last year, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) received more than 448,000 complaints about telco services, a 10 per cent rise from the previous quarter.
Averaging around 108 complaints per 10,000 services, the figures covered mobile networks, the National Broadband Network (NBN) and other fixed networks
According to ACMA, the median average number of days taken to fix 80 per cent of issues was six days, with the maximum hitting as much as 18.
Complaints about mobile services represented the lowest rate , while the relative number of issues about fixed broadband over the NBN averaged 40 per cent lower than for non-NBN networks.
NBN voice-only services specifically claimed the highest complaint rate, spurring 490 complaints per 10,000 voice-only services, although this fell by around 40 per cent from the previous quarter.
Faults to the service encompassed a quarter and a third of complaints about the NBN’s broadband and voice-only services respectively.
Roughly 10 per cent of complaints were referred to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, a five per cent decline from the past quarter.
“We are considering the data published in the report,” Ombudsman Judi Jones said. “The telecommunications sector must continue to focus on meeting the needs of consumers.
“The publication of internal complaint handling data provides a more comprehensive picture of the consumer experience and supports our work with regulators, government, and providers to better understand the issues driving complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.”
The ACMA data is based on telco providers with 30,000 or more services in operation.
