Australians’ telco experience

Having issues and faults fixed is the most important factor for 92% of households and 85% of Australian adults with mobile services (Australian mobile users). For businesses, it was close to the top (94%) along with reliability of services (98%) and getting the services they pay for (95%).

Satisfaction with reliability is higher for Australian mobile users and lower for businesses with internet.

Customers are mostly satisfied with the reliability of telco services

They also value good customer service and mobile coverage

89% of businesses, 86% of households and 81% of Australian mobile users think good telco customer service is extremely or very important.

84% of Australian mobile users also think mobile coverage is important.

90% of households also think protection of personal information is important.

Businesses and households are more likely to experience issues or faults

Australian adults

Of all issues or faults with mobile services, interruptions or dropouts are the most likely type (53%).

Households

Of all households with each service, the rate of issues or faults is:

• 56% with home internet (44% loss of service or outages, 37% dropouts)
• 22% with a home phone (39% loss of service or outages, 23% dropouts)
• 16% with mobile broadband
• 8% with a mobile phone family shared data plan

Businesses

Of all businesses with each service, the rate of issues or faults is:

• 52% with business internet (51% of these have loss of service or outages)
• 40% with a business phone (51% of these have loss of service or outages)
• 14% with mobile phones
• 11% with mobile broadband

Businesses are more likely to complain

Business complaints: 29% are about outages and 17% are about other types of faults or technical issues.

Household complaints: outages are the most common reason (30%), followed by dropouts (20%) and internet speed (16%)

Complaints from mobile users: 28% are about interruptions or dropouts and 25% are about billing. 

Internet has a higher rate of most recent complaints

Households: complaints about internet (26%) are three times as likely as for other household services (home phone: 9%, mobile broadband: 4%, mobile phone family shared data plan: 2%).

Businesses: complaints about internet (26%) are more likely than for phone (business phone: 19%, mobile phone: 5%, mobile broadband: 2%).

Australian adults: there are similar rates of complaint for mobile phones (12%) and mobile broadband (13%).

Complaints are taking too long to resolve

Business complaints take the longest to resolve

Not all customers are happy with how their complaints are handled, especially businesses

Of Australian mobile users with resolved complaints:

• 53% are satisfied
• 30% are dissatisfied

Of households with resolved complaints:

• 47% are satisfied
• 35% are dissatisfied

Of businesses with resolved complaints:

• 40% are satisfied
• 46% are dissatisfied

Not all mobile users are aware of what happens to their personal information

Other concerns for mobile users are about privacy and security:

• 73% are concerned that data provided online will be shared by the organisation it was given to
• 66% are concerned about their device location being shared
• 62% are concerned that their mobile phone is listening to conversations

Smart device privacy and security isn’t well understood

60% of households with smart devices are concerned about the amount of information these devices are collecting, but only 48% are aware of the amount. 37% are not aware.

63% are aware of how to make them private and secure. 25% are not aware.

Not all businesses are prepared for cyber threats

69% of businesses think they’re well equipped to manage cybersecurity threats and issues. 15% do not think they’re well equipped.