An increasing share of telco customers are escalating disputes to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s latest quarterly complaints-handling performance report.
The report, covering January to March 2025 and assessing 36 of the country’s largest providers, shows 7.1 per cent of complaints were referred to the Ombudsman in the quarter, up from 6.9 per cent in the previous three months.
“This is the third quarter in a row that has seen an increase in the proportion of telco complaints referred to the Ombudsman,” Ms Yorke said. “It is incredibly frustrating for customers when they not only have to make a complaint to their telco, but the provider is then unable to resolve that complaint.
“The data shows that some telcos need to do a lot more to address complaints so that customers don’t have to escalate the matter to the TIO to have it fixed.”
By referral rate, Lebara recorded the lowest proportion of complaints sent to the TIO, while Skymesh had the highest. Felix Mobile and Tangerine Telecom saw roughly half of their complaints escalated, and Circles.Life had 43 per cent escalated. Among the larger carriers, Telstra had 10.2 per cent of complaints referred to the TIO, TPG Internet 6.7 per cent and Optus 5.4 per cent.
On complaint volumes per 10,000 services, Vonex received the fewest while Circles.Life received the most. Of the big three, Telstra ranked 18th, Optus 31st and TPG Internet 34th on this measure.
For resolution speed, Dodo, Circles.Life, Moose Mobile, Amaysim, Woolworths Mobile and Starlink shared top spot with an average of one day to close complaints. Skymesh was slowest at 20 days. The industry average was 6.1 days, with TPG Internet averaging 2 days, Optus 6 days and Telstra 9 days.
ACMA said it will examine compliance with the Complaints Handling Standard under its enduring priority of protecting vulnerable telco consumers. The authority’s interactive, industry-wide complaints dataset, with records dating back to 2018, is also available and the performance report is updated quarterly to track changes over time.
