Sydney, 11 May 2017 – The six-month update on complaints about phone and internet services, released by the TIO today, is very disappointing in aggregate, but does suggest that action by telecommunication service providers is slowing the rate of growth in complaints, Communications Alliance said today.

While complaint levels in the period between 1 July and 31 December 2016 were up by 33.8 per cent against the historical lows of 2015, the rate of growth in complaints compared to the previous six months (January to June 2016) was 5.3% - an indication of greatly reduced growth.

Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton, said that service providers across the industry that experienced a surge in complaints during 2016 have been working hard to analyse root causes, re-engineer processes, improve customer satisfaction and reduce complaints.

“Clearly, more remains to be done and Communications Alliance is working closely with its members on these challenges.”

“We have seen five years of falling complaint levels as a result of concerted industry action – dropping complaint volumes by close to 50% - so the recent setbacks reported by the TIO are a matter of serious concern and are being addressed,” Mr Stanton said.

“There is no doubt that the roll-out of the nbn and the additional implementation challenges it brings, have contributed to rising complaints, but it is pleasing to note that the growth rate in nbn-related complaints is slower than the rate of new premises being connected to the national broadband network.”

It is also important to note that the total number of Services in Operation (SIOs) in Australia continues to grow, and that the numbers released today are not measured as a ratio of overall services.