Telecommunications complaints-handling

2018–19
OCTOBER 2019
Canberra
Red Building
Benjamin Offices
Chan Street
Belconnen ACT

PO Box 78
Belconnen ACT 2616

T +61 2 6219 5555

F +61 2 6219 5353

Melbourne
Level 32
Melbourne Central Tower
360 Elizabeth Street
Melbourne VIC

PO Box 13112
Law Courts
Melbourne VIC 8010

T +61 3 9963 6800

F +61 3 9963 6899

Sydney
Level 5
The Bay Centre
65 Pirrama Road
Pyrmont NSW

PO Box Q500
Queen Victoria Building
NSW 1230

T +61 2 9334 7700 or 1800 226 667

F +61 2 9334 7799

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PO Box 13112
Law Courts
Melbourne VIC 8010
Email: info@acma.gov.au
Introduction 1

Key figures 2

Key results 3

Data spotlight 4

The data 6
Data collection 15
Data quality 15

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Introduction
The ACMA collects, analyses and reports data about complaints obtained from large
and medium-size retail carriage service providers so that industry, consumers and
government can better understand what sits behind complaints. The data includes
details of certain complaint categories, the access technology associated with the
complainants’ services, and the time taken to resolve complaints.

The complaints data assists us in determining whether there are areas of complaints
performance that warrant regulatory scrutiny. It also provides transparency of
complaints-handling performance to industry, consumers and government. The ACMA
shares information with selected retail carriage service providers about how their
performance compares with the rest of industry.

While the data is collected quarterly under the Telecommunications (Consumer

Complaints) Record-Keeping Rules 2018 (the Rules), this report provides details of
complaints-handling performance over the full 2018–19 financial year.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) also publishes quarterly

complaints data. This data relates to complaints that it handles that have been
escalated by complainants from their retail carriage service provider. The TIO’s data
provides insights into the nature of the complaints it handles by several different
categorisations, including service type and issues for consumers. It also provides high-
level complaint data for the top 10 retail carriage service providers based on the
volume of TIO complaints received for the quarter.

Communications Alliance publishes a quarterly Complaints in Context index that

reports the number of complaints to the TIO in the previous quarter for retail carriage
service providers, proportionate to the number of services each has in operation.
Participation is open to all providers but at a minimum, includes the top ten from the
TIO’s annual report for the previous financial year. The Complaints in Context index
provides a means of comparing the customer service and complaint-handling
performance of different providers, irrespective of their size and market share.

Complaints data in this report is generally expressed as a ratio to the relevant number
of services expressed as ‘per 10,000 services in operation’. This approach allows
comparison of data across providers and network and service types.

ACMA is concerned about problems observed over 2018–19 with both the timeliness
of provision of complaints data and the accuracy of the data. While only a small
proportion of reporting retail carriage service providers have been responsible for
these problems, the provision of late or inaccurate data has a serious and material
impact on the use of the data by government and the ACMA to inform evidence-based
regulation and policy making, and on transparency of complaints-handling
performance to industry and consumers.

The seriousness of the ACMA’s concerns with accuracy is such that data provided by
Optus has been excluded from the report. The ACMA has required Optus to obtain an
external audit of its compliance with the Rules. Data from Optus will be included in
future reports when the ACMA is confident of its accuracy.

The ACMA expects reporting retail carriage service providers to have appropriate data
governance practices, systems and processes to enable complaints data to be
collected, recorded, stored, verified and reported as required under the Rules.

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Key figures

Complaints 1
Number of complaints
97 complaints per 10,000 services

Median time taken to resolve complaints

5 days

Median proportion of complaints referred from the TIO to reporting

providers
5.4 per cent

Services in operation 2

Voice (non-NBN fixed voice and NBN voice-only)

2,697,212

Mobile
21,843,713

Broadband (Non-NBN fixed broadband and NBN broadband)

5,478,508

1
For the 30 June 2019 quarter
2
As at 30 June 2019

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Key results
Total complaint numbers fell in the course of 2018–19. Complaints referred to
providers by the TIO also fell. The fall in complaints referred to providers by the TIO
suggests providers are getting better at managing complaints themselves and
minimising escalations to the TIO.

Complaints about broadband services delivered over the National Broadband Network
(NBN) were proportionately lower than equivalent services on old networks. NBN
satellite services attracted the least complaints of all the NBN access technologies.

As reported, complaints about NBN voice-only services remained stubbornly high

throughout 2018–19. We have requested information from industry to identify the root
cause of these complaints and any actions being taken to rectify them.

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Data spotlight
Total complaints: down towards the end of the year
Total complaints remained steady for the first three quarters of 2018–19 and then
declined in the June 2019 quarter.

Ninety-seven complaints per 10,000 services in operation were reported in the June
2019 quarter, down 17.1 per cent from the March 2019 quarter. Sixteen of the 30
reporting providers reported receiving 30 or less complaints per 10,000 services in
operation in the June 2019 quarter (less than a third of the industry figure of 97
complaints per 10,000 services in operation). Eleven providers reported receiving
greater than 50 complaints per 10,000 services in operation for the June 2019 quarter.
For more information, see Figure 5 and Table 1.

Mobile services: lowest complaint rate

Mobile services had the greatest volume of services in operation (21.8 million in the
June 2019 quarter) yet received the lowest number of complaints per services in
operation over 2018–19, with the rate of complaints declining each quarter.

The June 2019 quarter showed the lowest complaints throughout the year with just 48
complaints per 10,000 services in operation (down 15.8 per cent from 57 in March
2019). For more information, see Figure 1 and Table 1.

TIO referred complaints: down in the final quarter

The volume of complaints referred to providers from the TIO increased noticeably in
the March 2019 quarter but decreased by 11.8 per cent in the June 2019 quarter (from
28,487 to 25,126).
For reporting providers with 500 or more complaints, the median proportion of
complaints that were referred by the TIO decreased from a high of 10.9 per cent in the
first quarter of 2018–19 to 5.4 in June 2019. For further details, see Table 7.

NBN voice-only services: highest complaint rate

As reported, NBN voice-only services were consistently the most complained about
service during 2018–19. In the June 2019 quarter, the rate of complaints about NBN
voice-only services was 488 per 10,000 services in operation, or nearly one in 20.

The complaint rate for NBN voice-only services ended the year almost three times
higher than complaints about broadband services delivered over the NBN (488 and
166 complaints per 10,000 services in operation respectively in the June 2019 quarter)
and over six times higher than voice services delivered over other fixed networks (75
complaints per 10,000 services in operation in the June 2019 quarter). See figures 1
and 4, and tables 1 and 4 for further details.

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Complaints about services delivered over the NBN:
decline
Complaints about services delivered over a satellite connection were the lowest of all
NBN access technologies throughout 2018–19 with just 55 complaints per 10,000
services in operation (0.55 per cent) reported in the June 2019 quarter.

The rate of complaints about hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) broadband services delivered
over the NBN was, by a small margin, the highest of the NBN access technologies in
the June 2019 quarter, with 300 complaints per 10,000 services in operation.

This equates to a complaint being recorded in relation to 3.0 per cent of HFC services
in the June 2019 quarter, a reduction from approximately 3.9 per cent in March 2019.

Complaints about services delivered over the fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) NBN access
technology declined significantly over the year. In September 2018, providers reported
744 complaints per 10,000 services in operation. However, complaints in June 2019
have continued the downward trend shown in the previous two quarters with
complaints dropping to 282 per 10,000 services in operation, a reduction of 33
per cent from the March 2019 quarter.

For further details, see Figure 2 and Table 2.

Complaints about fixed broadband services on non-NBN

networks: higher than NBN broadband complaints
Fixed broadband services on non-NBN networks experienced more complaints per
10,000 services in operation than broadband services delivered over the NBN for each
quarter of 2018–19.

In June 2019, the rate of complaints for fixed broadband services on non-NBN
networks (367 complaints per 10,000 services) was much higher than for broadband
services delivered over the NBN (166 complaints per 10,000 services). For further
details, see Figure 1.

Timeframe to resolve complaints: improves

The median number of days to resolve complaints has decreased slightly over the
2018–19 period, from six days in the September 2018 and December 2018 quarters to
five days in both March 2019 and June 2019. For further details, see Table 5.
The number of providers that took an average of seven days or more to resolve
complaints has decreased over the 2018–19 period, from 12 in September 2018 to 10
in June 2019. The number of providers that took an average of six days or less to
resolve a complaint improved from 17 to 20 over the same period. For further details,
see Figure 6 and Table 9.

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The data
The following figures and tables comprise quarterly data provided by reporting
providers to the ACMA in the 2018–19 financial year.

Figure 1: Complaints by service type (per 10,000 services in operation)

600
527
504
500 488494
456
433420
400 367369

300
256
212
197198 193
200 166

107 99
93 94
100 75 65 62 57
48 58

0
Fixed broadband Fixed voice NBN broadband NBN voice-only Mobile

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019 Average

Figure 2: NBN broadband complaints, by access technology (per 10,000

services in operation)

800
744

700

600

500 475
454
421
400 387
343
324
300
300 266 282
261264 250
263
210 208
193191 182
200
142144153148
152
135 147159 144
148
122
100 82
57 55 54
20
0
HFC FTTC FTTB Fixed Wireless FTTN FTTP Satellite

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019 Average

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Figure 3: NBN broadband complaints, by complaint category (per 10,000
services in operation)

140

120

100
67
80
42 56
44
60

40
36 36
28 30
20
19 17 17 15
0
Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

Speed Connection Fault

Note: Complaints not categorised as due to connections, faults or speed totalled 100 per 10,000 services in
operation (51.3 per cent) of reported complaints in the September 2018 quarter, 97 per 10,000 services in
operation (48.7 per cent) in the December 2018 quarter, 92 per 10,000 services in operation (43.4 per cent)
in the March 2019 quarter and 77 (46.4 per cent) in the June 2019 quarter. The ACMA does not have
details of the nature of these complaints.

Figure 4: NBN voice-only complaints, by complaint category (per 10,000

services in operation)
300

250

200

154 174 183

150 175

100

50 87 75 76 66
0
Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

Connection Fault

Note: Complaints not categorised as due to connections or faults totalled 215 per 10,000 services in
operation (47.2 per cent) of the reported complaints in the September 2018 quarter, 255 per 10,000
services in operation (50.6 per cent) in the December 2018 quarter, 268 per 10,000 services in operation
(50.9 per cent) in the March 2019 quarter, and 247 per 10,000 services in operation (50.5 per cent) in the
June 2019 quarter. The ACMA does not have details of the nature of these complaints.

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Figure 5: Complaints received, by number of reporting providers (per 10,000
services in operation)

12
11
10

8
7 7
6 6 6
5 5 5
4 4
3 3 3 3
2 2 2 2
1
0
1 to 10 11 to 20 21 to 30 31 to 40 41 to 50 > 5 0 c om pl ai nt s
c om pl ai nt s c om pl ai nt s c o m p l ai n t s c om pl ai nt s c om pl ai nt s

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

Note: This chart shows, for the September 2018, December 2018, March 2019 and June 2019 quarters, the
number of complaints received per 10,000 services in operation for the reporting providers, grouped into six
complaint number ranges. For example, the chart shows for the September 2018 quarter, six reporting
providers had complaints per 10,000 services in operation within the 1 to 10 complaint range, whereas for
the December 2018 quarter, five reporting providers had complaints per 10,000 services in operation within
that same range.

Figure 6: Average days to resolve complaints, by number of reporting

providers

12
11 11
10
9
8
7
6
5 5 5
4 4 4
3 3 3 3
2 2

0 t o 3 d ays 4 t o 6 d ays 7 t o 9 d ays 1 0 to 1 2 days > 1 2 d ays

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

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Figure 7: Time taken to resolve 80 per cent of complaints, by number of
reporting providers

11 11 11

7 7 7
6 6
5 5 5 5 5 5
4
3
2 2
1

0 t o 3 d ays 4 t o 6 d ays 7 t o 9 d ays 1 0 to 1 2 days > 1 2 d ays

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

Note: This data excludes the 20 per cent of complaints that took the longest to resolve because these may
be atypical.

Figure 8: TIO complaint referral rate, by number of reporting providers

4 4 4 4 4 4 4

2 2

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 0 0
0 to 5% 6 to 10% 11 to 15% 16 to 20% 21 to 25% > 25%

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

Note: This chart shows, for the September 2018, December 2018, March 2019 and June 2019 quarters, the
TIO complaint referral rate (expressed as a percentage) for the reporting providers that received 500 or
more complaints from the TIO, grouped into six complaint referral rate ranges. For example, the chart
shows for the September 2018 quarter that five reporting providers had a TIO complaint referral rate within
the 0–5 per cent range, whereas for the December 2018 quarter, four reporting providers had a TIO
complaint referral rate within that same range
The TIO complaint referral rate is calculated by dividing the number of TIO referred complaints by the
number of complaints initially made to the provider. A comparatively low TIO complaint referral rate
indicates that less customers are escalating their complaints to the TIO. This may suggest that providers
with low TIO complaint referral rates are effectively resolving complaints that have been raised with them.

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Figure 9: Services in operation, by service type

25,000,000
22,113,853
22,048,293
21,843,713
21,332,588

20,000,000

15,000,000

10,000,000
4,338,436
3,954,453
3,643,239

3,423,578
3,373,764

3,152,516
2,870,954
2,440,121

1,579,395
1,471,613
1,328,691
1,140,072
5,000,000

266,336

269,290
262,210
265,197

257,091

240,539
237,756
214,557
0
Mobile NBN broadband Fixed voice Fixed broadband NBN voice-only Other

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

Figure 10: NBN broadband services in operation, by access technology

2,500,000

2,000,000 2,074,354
1,974,965
1,864,118
1,745,906

1,500,000
1,007,202
984,154
956,396
930,142

670,180

1,000,000
494,429
379,882
307,657

252,838
245,790
245,210
232,963

193,759
123,308

500,000
94,623
86,794
79,959
77,002
71,521

45,129
45,573
45,593
45,480
34,965

0
FTTN FTTP HFC Fixed wireless FTTC FTTB Satellite

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

10 | acma
Table 1: Complaints, by service type

Complaints, by service type (per 10,000 services in operation)

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019 Average
Total 122 124 117 97 115
Fixed broadband 256 433 420 367 369
Fixed voice 107 99 93 75 94
NBN broadband 197 198 212 166 193
NBN voice-only 456 504 527 488 494
Mobile 65 62 57 48 58
Complaints, by service type (aggregate)
Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019
Total 367,945 382,878 360,806 295,087
Fixed broadband 40,504 63,770 55,777 41,885
Fixed voice 36,760 31,248 26,756 18,268
NBN broadband 66,556 72,161 83,853 72,077
NBN voice-only 11,953 13,366 14,040 12,541
Mobile 137,917 137,248 124,595 104,787
Other 74,255 65,085 55,785 45,529

Table 2: NBN broadband complaints, by access technology (per 10,000

services in operation)

Mar Jun Average

Sep 2018 Dec 2018
2019 2019
HFC 266 343 387 300 324
FTTC 744 454 421 282 475
FTTB 263 261 264 210 250
Fixed 148
152 142 144 153
Wireless
FTTN 208 193 191 135 182
FTTP 148 147 159 122 144
Satellite 20 57 82 55 54

Table 3: NBN broadband complaints, by complaint category (per 10,000

services in operation)

Sep Dec Mar Jun

2018 2018 2019 2019
Total complaints per 10,000 services in
197 198 212 166
operation
Connection 18.1% 14.1% 17.1% 17.9%
Fault 21.2% 28.5% 31.4% 26.4%
Speed 9.5% 8.8% 8.1% 9.3%
Other 51.3% 48.7% 43.4% 46.4%

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Table 4: NBN voice-only complaints, by complaint category (per 10,000
services in operation)

Sep Dec Mar Jun

2018 2018 2019 2019
Total complaints per 10,000 services in
456 504 527 488
operation
Connection 19.1% 14.8% 14.4% 13.6%
Fault 33.7% 34.6% 34.7% 35.9%
50.9% 50.5%

Other 47.2% 50.6%

Table 5: Average number of days to resolve complaints

Mar
Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Jun 2019
2019
Minimum average number of days
1 1 1 1
reported to resolve complaints

Maximum average number of days

14 13 19 20
reported to resolve complaints
Median average number of days to
6 6 5 5
resolve complaints

Table 6: Time taken to resolve 80 per cent of complaints

Mar
Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Jun 2019
2019
Minimum number of days reported
to resolve at least 80 per cent of 1 1 1 1
complaints
Maximum number of days reported
to resolve at least 80 per cent of 17 18 29 28
complaints
Median number of days to resolve
4 6 6 5
at least 80 per cent of complaints

Table 7: Complaints referred from the TIO to reporting providers

Mar
Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Jun 2019
2019
Median complaint referral rate 10.9% 8.5% 9.0% 5.4%
Number of TIO complaints 23,334 22,875 28,487 25,126
TIO complaints per 10,000 services
8 7 9 8
in operation

Note: The median complaint escalation rate excludes reporting providers with less than 500 complaints
during a quarter.

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Table 8: Complaints received, by number of reporting providers (per 10,000
services in operation)

Mar
Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Jun 2019
2019
1 to 10 complaints

6 5 4 6

11 to 20 complaints

5 7 8 4

21 to 30 complaints
5 3 3 6

31 to 40 complaints
3 2 2 2

41 to 50 complaints
3 0 2 1
>50 complaints 7 12 10 11

Table 9: Average days to resolve complaints, by number of reporting providers

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

0 to 3 days 12 11 10 11
4 to 6 days 5 4 7 9
7 to 9 days 6 8 5 5
10 to 12
4 3 4 2
days
> 12 days 2 3 3 3

Table 10: Time taken to resolve 80 per cent of complaints, by number of

reporting providers

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

0 to 3 days 11 9 11 11
4 to 6 days 5 7 7 7
7 to 9 days 6 5 4 5
10 to 12
5 3 2 1
days
> 12 days 2 5 5 6

Table 11: TIO complaint referral rate, by number of reporting providers

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

0 to 5% 5 4 4 7
6 to 10% 1 4 4 1
11 to 1 4 1 2

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 15%
16 to
1 0 1 2
20%
21 to
1 1 0 0
25%
> 25% 4 1 4 1

Table 12: Services in operation, by service type

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

30,709,26
Total 30,186,092 30,884,174 30,288,723
6
Fixed broadband 1,579,395 1,471,613 1,328,691 1,140,072
Fixed voice 3,423,578 3,152,516 2,870,954 2,440,121
NBN broadband 3,373,764 3,643,239 3,954,453 4,338,436
NBN voice-only 262,210 265,197 266,336 257,091
22,048,29
Mobile 21,332,588 22,113,853 21,843,713
3
Other 214,557 237,756 240,539 269,290

Table 13: NBN broadband services in operation, by access technology

Sep 2018 Dec 2018 Mar 2019 Jun 2019

FTTN 1,745,906 1,864,118 1,974,965 2,074,354
FTTP 930,142 956,396 984,154 1,007,202
HFC 307,657 379,882 494,429 670,180
Fixed
232,963 245,790 245,210 252,838
wireless
FTTC 34,965 71,521 123,308 193,759
FTTB 77,002 79,959 86,794 94,623
Satellite 45,129 45,573 45,593 45,480

14 | acma
Data collection
The data in this report is collected under the Rules. Data is provided by reporting
providers who, during the previous quarterly reporting period, supplied 30,000 or more
services in operation. Data must be provided to the ACMA within 30 days of the end of
a quarter. Due to legal restrictions, the ACMA generally cannot publish provider names
and related data.

Data quality
The ACMA undertakes validity checks on reported data, with any issues identified
drawn to reporting providers’ attention with a view to addressing them prior to
publication. Where a reporting provider receives less than 500 complaints in the
quarter, the percentage of complaints referred by the TIO is not reported.

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