The report shows that for participating organisations, there was an average of 3.6 complaints per 10,000 services in operation (SIO)—or one complaint to the TIO for every 2,778 services in operation.

“When it became mandatory in 2019, for identified telcos to participate in the quarterly complaints index, through our Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code, industry’s objective was to drive competition in this space by increasing transparency,” said Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton.

“Although the index is not the only driver of improved service provider performance and there is, of course, always room for improvement, we are delighted that this TCP Code provision appears to be driving improved customer service, as intended,” Stanton said.

The Complaints in Context Report provides information about complaints recorded against individual providers by the TIO by creating an index that allows direct comparison of complaint numbers against individual telcos, regardless of their size.

Participation in the index is mandatory for the 10 telco providers identified by the TIO as having the largest (absolute) number of phone and internet complaints in the previous financial year, with voluntary participation also welcomed.

This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 18 November 2022