John Stanton’s column in The Australian
For your reading pleasure, Communications Alliance column published in The Australian on 24 August 2010.
Telcos’ image issues often unjustified
Lily Tomlin has a bit to answer for. Ever since she debuted her wise-cracking, snorting character Ernestine the Operator in the early 1970s episodes of Laugh In, the global telecommunications industry’s image has been in the dumpster. It’s a compelling stereotype, after all: “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the ‘phone company.”
In fact it seems in recent years Chemical Ali has enjoyed better press than the average Aussie telco.
A poor reputation doesn’t emerge without reason, of course. Although performance varies across the industry, the leaders of every carrier or carriage service provider in Australia would concede that they have made mistakes, that customer service has at times been sub-standard and that customers have suffered as a result.
Complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) jumped in recent years as service offerings became rapidly more complex and diverse, and carriers struggled to develop systems, billing engines and customer service practices that could keep up with the pace of change.
It is worth noting that the larger carriers in Australia issue more than 40 million bills each year to customers. That’s a lot of ‘Moments of Truth’ – every one of which has the potential to generate a complaint.
I’m sure that almost every guest at any dinner party across the nation would be able to happily recount a service mishap that befell them or a friend.
But that is not the whole story…..
In fact the volume of complaints to the TIO has dropped by around 23 percent over the past 12 months, yet remains unacceptably high.
The industry is now heavily engaged in a review of the Communications Alliance consumer protection codes, which govern the behaviour of carriers and service providers in terms of billing, complaint handling, customer contracts, advertising and other areas.
There is a concerted effort to further improve the codes and the level of industry compliance, to generate better outcomes for all telecoms consumers in Australia.
While that’s underway we should not overlook entirely the many good things that the telecommunications industry has done for Australia.
In the interests of balance I’m keen to share a few.
Australia’s pioneering telecoms experts contributed to the creation of a standardised global telecommunications network – anywhere to anywhere access – at the beginning of last century. This was at a time, remember, when we were still building a multitude of different gauge rail networks across the country.
Our phone companies are still pretty good at this stuff. Australia’s Mobile Number Portability mechanism – created cooperatively by representatives from numerous local carriers, allows customers to switch their service from one mobile operator to another in typically less than a minute – the best and most efficient system of its kind anywhere in the world.
Value for money? In the 1940s a three minute international call to London cost close to the average weekly wage and the average price of cars was around 27 times the average weekly wage. Today that same international phone call can cost as little as nine cents. If the price of cars had fallen at the same rate as international telephone charges, a new family sedan could be purchased today for less than the cost of taking the family out to dinner.
Telcos step up in times of need. In the immediate wake of the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, the phone companies were among the first to jump in and help. Optus and Telstra each gave away more than 1,000 mobile handsets free of charge to bushfire victims, along with more than $1 million of free airtime – no strings attached.
Telstra waived almost 25,000 customer bills and converted 60 payphones to provide free local and STD calls. Many telcos also made generous donations to the bushfire relief appeals.
On the subject of philanthropy, the telco sector is vigorous to say the least. Take a look on-line at the programs run by the charitable foundations of Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Optus and Telstra, to name but a few. Tens of millions of dollars are directed annually to a wealth of good causes helping the young, the disadvantaged and homeless, indigenous Australians, breast cancer victims, environmental causes and many others.
For the past 12 months up to 150 volunteers from telecommunications organisations across Australia have donated their time to the Communications Alliance project to craft practicable solutions for the planned National Broadband Network – putting in place the multitude of technical and operational details that are needed to ensure that all Australians can benefit fully from the new fibre technology when it is rolled-out and ‘lit-up’.
Thankfully, most of that work will be applicable not only to the NBN but to any alternative high-speed broadband network that may be rolled out if the current romancing of independents results in a Coalition government.
On wider contribution, there’s no denying the sector is an economic driver and has underpinned the successful growth of all other industries.
The telecommunications segment is large – generating close to $40 billion in revenues this year, while the ICT sector employs more than 500,000 Australians – a large proportion of whom work in the telecommunications industry.
Telcos aren’t perfect – they never will be. But now – and in the brave new world of fibre to the home - they remain key to national progress.
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