Telco complaints hold steady

The Communications Alliance has found consumer complaints remained steady as its latest data showed one complaint for every 3,030 services in operation.

The communications industry body latest Complaints-in-Context report showed data shows there were 3.3 complaints per 10,000 services in operation (SIO) on the networks of participating communications providers in the January to March 2024 quarter.

This equates to around one complaint for every 3,030 services in operation, the alliance said. 

Under these findings, the report found the latest numbers show this is up slightly from the 3.1 complaints per 10,000 services in the previous quarter, but significantly down from an average of 3.7 in the same period last year, and 4.8 the year before.

Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton, said the report was introduced in 2019 to “increase transparency and competition” to boost competition in the telco complaints reporting space.  

It’s understood this enables greater customer service and complaint-handling comparisons. 

“Under co-regulatory arrangements in the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code, the 10 telco providers identified by the TIO as having the largest (absolute) number of phone and internet complaints in the previous financial year must participate,” Stanton said. 

“Telcos may also participate voluntarily.”

Stanton added, “Although the index is only one driver of competition in this space and there is, of course, always room for improvement, the year-on-year decline in complaint numbers is a testament to telcos’ efforts to compete on customer service.

“It also suggests that this TCP Code provision appears to be driving improved customer service, as intended.”