Faulty Phones, Net Service Main Complaints
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An iTWire publication www.itwire.com Editor: Stan Beer Wednesday 20 May 2020 FAULTY PHONES, NET SERVICE MAIN COMPLAINTS CommsWire (ISSN 2202-4549) is published by iTWire Pty Ltd. 18 Lansdown St, Hampton, Vic, 3188 CommsWire/Telecommunications Editor: Stan Beer Staff writers: Peter Dinham, Alex Zaharov-Reutt, Sam Varghese. Columnist: John de Ridder Advertising: CEO and Editor in Chief, Andrew Matler: [email protected] • Tel: 0412 390 000 FAULTY PHONES, INTERNET SERVICES DOMINATE TIO COMPLAINTS Consumers and small businesses made 32,441 complaints about phone and Internet services to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) in Q1 2020 - with 70% of the complaints coming from users not having a working phone or Internet service. The TIO says that while the comparison of the total number of complaints for the three months, against the same period in 2019, shows a decline of almost 14%, complaints about phone and Internet services increased 13% against the second quarter of 2020. The TIO lists complaint highlights for Q3 2020 as: 32,441 complaints were received from residential consumers and small businesses Down 13.7 per cent against the same period in 2019. Up 13 per cent against the previous quarter. In the top 10 issues in complaints, “No phone or internet service” increased almost 70 per cent against the previous quarter. Internet was the most complained about service type for quarter 3. "Missed appointment" appeared in the top 10 issues for residential consumers, replacing "Termination fees". Faults and connection complaints made up 50.3 per cent of complaints for the period, compared to 47.1 per cent in Q2. Internet, landline, and multiple services delivered over non-NBN networks saw greater growth in faults and connections issues. “Number problem due to a connection, disconnection or transfer” dropped out of top 10 issues that came back unresolved after referral to the provider, replaced by “Bill unclear or not received”. Boost Tel dropped out of the top 10 providers replaced by Primus Telecom This data is highlighted in the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s third quarter 2020 complaints report published on Wednesday. The TIO complaints report also drew comment from telecoms lobby group Communications Alliance and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) which said the report “suggests that telcos need a customer service shake-up as consumers continue to deal with no or delayed action”. ACCAN CEO Teresa Corbin said that nearly a third (31%) of complaints escalated to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) by between January and March 2020 “related to issues with no or delayed action from telecommunications providers”, and “an additional 11% of complaints had a resolution agreed to by the telco and consumers, but not met”. “While we acknowledge that the natural disasters of summer 2019-2020 placed extraordinary demands upon the telecommunications networks, this has been an ongoing issue for consumers for a long time,” Corbin said. Wednesday 20 May 2020 No: 200520 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 2 “If there are legitimate reasons for a delay in fixing a consumer’s phone or Internet problem, it’s important that telcos are communicating this openly and often so that their customers can understand what the problem is, and when they can expect it to be addressed.” Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton said, “ultimately, and as noted in the ACMA’s recent report on the 2019-20 bushfires, network outages were overwhelmingly due to loss of mains electricity, rather than fire damage.” “The scale of the bushfire tragedy was unprecedented and put enormous pressure on telecommunications networks. Carriers worked around the clock to keep people connected, deploying additional generators and bringing in various technologies to provide temporary services in affected areas”, Stanton said. “Q3 has historically had the highest number of complaints to the TIO, and despite the impact of these natural disasters, we are encouraged that this is the lowest number of complaints for Q3 in 3 years. “Unfortunately, the devastating bushfires and floods are not the only crises facing Australians this year. As noted by the TIO, this report does not reflect the impacts of COVID- 19, as those impacts began at the end of the quarter. Industry is working closely with the TIO, regulators, and Government to support Australians to stay connected through this crisis.” The TIO report published on Wednesday reveals that complaints about not having a working phone or Internet service increased almost 70% from the previous quarter - while complaints about this issue were also high in Q3 2019, with the increase in Q3 2020 “coinciding with extreme weather events that appeared to have a greater impact on NSW consumers in February and March”. The TIO says complaints about Internet services increased 22% from the previous quarter, and when compared to Q3 2019, Internet service complaints decreased by 18%. There report also shows that there was an increase in complaints from residential consumers of almost 14% compared to the previous quarter, and for residential consumers, problems with missed appointments replaced complaints about termination fees in the top 10 issues. Meanwhile, complaints from small businesses increased 8% against the previous quarter, with the top 10 issues impacting small businesses remaining unchanged from Q2 - with poor customer service, issues with a bill, and faults and connections problems continuing to be the most complained about issues by small businesses. Peter Dinham Wednesday 20 May 2020 No: 200520 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 3 GLOBAL PRICES FOR TELECOMS SERVICES CONTINUE DECLINE: ITU Prices for telecommunication services continue to decline but do not translate into rapidly increasing Internet penetration rates, suggesting that there are other barriers to Internet use, according to a new report by the International Telecommunications Union. According to the ITU’s new statistical report - Measuring Digital Development: ICT Price Trends 2019 - on average, prices for mobile-voice, mobile-data and fixed-broadband services are decreasing steadily around the world, and in some countries even dramatically. The ITU says the reduction in price relative to income is even more dramatic, suggesting that, globally, “telecommunication and information and communication technology services are becoming more affordable”. "Keeping telecommunication and digital services as affordable as possible has always been important to ensure broader Internet uptake, especially for lower-income households and consumers," said Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General. "In the face of COVID-19, this is more vital than ever. “People who do not have access to the Internet may not be able to access information about how to protect themselves from coronavirus, telework, learn remotely and connect with families and friends during quarantine." The latest statistics from ITU confirm that affordability may not be the only barrier to Internet uptake, and that other factors such as low level of education, lack of relevant content, lack of content in local languages, lack of digital skills, and a low-quality Internet connection may also prevent effective use. "The COVID-19 crisis has clearly shown us that nobody is safe until we are all safe. By the same token, we will not be able to use the full potential of digital technologies until we are all connected," said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau. Wednesday 20 May 2020 No: 200520 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 4 "To connect all, we need to address all factors that may prevent meaningful connectivity." Key results from the ITU study reveal that: An entry-level mobile-voice basket remains broadly affordable in most countries. In 70 countries, a low-usage mobile-voice plan was available for less than 1% of gross national income (GNI) per capita, and in a further 37 countries it stood below 2%. Although causality is difficult to prove, price reductions have undoubtedly helped contribute to the rapid rise in the mobile-voice penetration rate, alongside growing competition and better price monitoring and evaluation by regulators. The expansion of bundled services has further reduced prices, as combined data-and- voice baskets are generally less expensive than the sum of the two separate baskets in most markets. Prices have decreased from 2013 to 2019 relative to GNI per capita The global average price of a mobile-data basket of 1.5 GB shrank from 8.4% of GNI per capita in 2013 to 3.2% in 2019, at a compound annual growth rate of almost -15%. When expressed in USD, the global average price of a mobile-data basket of at least 1.5 GB dropped by 7% on average annually between 2013 and 2019. Good progress has been made towards the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development's target of achieving affordable broadband costing 2-5% of GNI per capita by 2025, but still more remains to be done. There are still nine developing countries and 31 LDCs that have yet to reach the 2 per cent target by 2025. Fixed-broadband packages remain generally more expensive than mobile-data packages (although data allowances are not always directly comparable). Over the past four years, the affordability of fixed broadband has not changed substantially, but advertised download speeds continue to increase. Peter Dinham Wednesday 20 May 2020 No: 200520 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 5 OPTUS TO OFFER REALME C3 SMARTPHONE AS A PRE-PAID OPTION Singtel Optus and China's realme have signed an agreement for Optus to offer the C3 smartphone as a pre-paid device for $199. The C3 was released in April at an RRP of $269. A statement from realme said the C3 would be available at all retailers that offered Optus pre-paid smartphones, including Yes Optus, Kmart, Big W, Target, Australia Post, Woolworths (red only) and Coles (from 1 June). realme managing director Andy Yang said: “This business development represents an incredibly exciting step forward for realme.