Key Points
- Complaints with internet services increased by 8.5 per cent on the previous quarter, with a 32 per cent jump in problems being experienced with intermittent service or drop-outs.
- Telecommunications Industry Report also reveals allegations of misleading conduct by mobile phone companies have jumped.
- The Consumer Action Law Centre is calling on the Federal Government to impose mandatory laws requiring telcos to provide timely assistance to those who are struggling before they have to escalate their complaint to the Ombudsman.
Singing teacher and voice coach June Young often uses the internet for her online classes. The New South Wales resident is among the thousands of people in Australia who experience quality and connection issues with their internet.
Ms Young feels frustrated every time she has to reconnect or log out of her system to try to get a better internet signal or connection.
"For my online teaching, an internet connection is vital to be able to provide my students quality lessons and proper guidance," the voice teacher points out.
Reliable internet connection is vital to connect with family and friends overseas as well as for people working in the digital industry. Credit: George Milton (via Pexels)
Cynthia Gebart has been scrutinising the country's telcos for the past year as the nation's Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.
She reveals that "increases recorded consumers struggling to get connected to an NBN service, problems with a bill as well as service quality, like drop-outs and slow data speeds."
"A lot of customers are having trouble getting connected in the first place, and then there are some others that are having issues with quality of the service when they do. And we looked into it a bit more and the majority of the internet connection complaints were coming from parts of Brisbane and some outer suburbs of Sydney."
Mobile phones remain the most commonly complained about service type, the Ombudsman says, making up almost half of all of the 17,777 complaints received between January and March.
The Telco Industry Report says that "there's about 19 per cent drop in complaints compared to the first quarter of last year, but there are still some hot spot areas that should be concerned about, on both internet and mobiles". Credit: Michael Burrows (via Pexels)
In a statement in response to the Ombudsman's report, a company spokesperson says:
“Some of the customer-focused improvements we have delivered include enhancements to information relating to network outages on NBN’s website, improvements to customer appointment setting, remediation times, SMS messaging, and customer notifications. We are also delivering more fibre and enabling internet retailers to deliver faster broadband services to more areas. We remain committed to finding ways to continue to improve the customer experience and resolve issues faster and more efficiently."
But the Consumer Action Law Centre says the report contains the same concerns with the industry highlighted in previous reports.
Senior policy officer David Hofierka says telcos are not doing enough for people suffering financial hardship.
The centre is calling on the Federal Government to impose mandatory laws requiring telcos to provide timely assistance to those who are struggling before they have to escalate their complaint to the Ombudsman.
For June Young, who frequently does live streaming too, she can only hope to get what she pays for and a better connection and quality service wherever you are in Australia.
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