Telstra complaints are rising but Optus is the worst, reports telecommunications ombudsman

TELSTRA is still suffering from its national phone network outages, with the telecommunications ombudsman confirming complaints are on the rise.

Despite common perceptions, Australia’s most popular phone provider attracted more complaints than its competitors Vodafone and Amaysim, and more than the industry average, in figures released this afternoon.

Optus won the wooden spoon, however, with the highest rate of complaints and the highest jump in complaints.

New complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman about Telstra now sit at 6.4 for every 10,000 services, it reported today, up from 4.9 complaints in the last three months of 2015.

By comparison, Vodafone attracted a rate of 3.7 complaints in every 10,000 services, Amaysim just one complaint, and the industry average sat at 6.2 complaints.

The TIO said reports about telecommunications providers rose 29 per cent as a proportion of services at the start of this year, though “summer weather events” frequently affect these results.

However Australia’s leading but arguably most embattled provider, Telstra, suffered two national outages to its mobile phone network in February and March this year, which may have affected its results.

Telstra compensated customers with two days of “free data” use for the outages, however its network delivered a slow experience for some users on the second occasion.

Despite Telstra’s complaint increase, Optus proved the biggest complaints magnet for phone and internet users, with 7.9 complaints per 10,000 services, up from 5.9 at the end of last year.


http://www.news.com.au/technology/telstra-complaints-are-rising-but-optus-is-the-worst-reports-telecommunications-ombudsman/news-story/efff1b726f6dbff3745b64eb178e6c1b