More than 15,000 Aussies complained about poor and patchy phone and internet service, with the nation's two territories experiencing the largest increase in gripes about providers and service dropouts.
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The latest quarterly report from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) revealed the country's top complaints and reported a 13 per cent increase between October and December 2024 from the previous quarter.
No phone or internet service had the largest increase at 44.1 per cent, an extra 638 complaints, and a 21.1 per cent increase regarding intermittent service or dropouts.
The 3G network shutdown resulted in 190 complaints being made in October, but the TIO said these had dropped in December, with the majority of complaints about problems with the reliability of mobile services.
Complaints for Telstra and Optus increased by 9 per cent and 23.1 per cent respectively, while Vodafone experienced a drop of 2.1 per cent.
Every state experienced a surge in complaints, but the territories had the largest increases in complaints, 49 per cent in the Northern Territory and 35.5 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory, although they only made up respective 0.5 and 1.4 per cent of total national complaints.
The top five local government areas submitting the most complaints were Brisbane, Qld (606), Gold Coast, Qld (361), Moreton Bay, Qld (268), Sunshine Coast, Qld (232) and Central Coast, NSW (210).
Ayden Dawkins
Ayden is the digital editor for ACM's Victorian mastheads.
Do you have a story that should be told? Email him at ayden.dawkins@acm.media
