Ombudsman calls for telco reform, highlighting failures for regional consumers

ACCAN

Peak communications consumer body ACCAN welcomes and supports the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO)'s report into regional communications experiences, which calls for reform to ensure equitable access to essential telco services.

As consumer frustrations with telcos boil over, the TIO’s new report has raised serious examples of harm and poor service among regional communications users from around the country. Among the report's key findings:

• Outages and reliability problems represent a critical risk to safety and business operations
• Mobile coverage is inadequate and unreliable, falling short of what regional consumers actually need
• Choice for these consumers is limited, and awareness of tech options is low.

ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said that, "The Ombudsman has laid bare the experiences, the frustrations and the costs to regional consumers. For regions to flourish, they need reliable access to this essential service.” 

“Consumers are telling us that coverage is actually diminishing in some parts of the country and we hear similar stories to those reported by the Ombudsman including that some consumers use two-way radios just to stay connected," Ms Bennett said.

"We can't accept that in the 2020's regional consumers are being left exposed to unnecessary risks to their safety and their livelihoods. We need to see the UOMO Bill passed with strong consumer protections, including reliability and performance standards and mandatory domestic roaming so that we can start to benefit from new technology including direct-to-handset connectivity."

"We agree that there should be accessible and direct remedies for consumers who experience unreasonable delays getting their service back in working order. An automatic compensation framework would also give consumers more certainty and industry would have a real incentive to fix problems faster," Ms Bennett said.

"The TIO have echoed this is a serious problem, and we need to act rather than have another review that will further delay important measures to keep Australia productive, competitive and safe.”

“Regional consumers shouldn't have to wait years for proven, commonsense reform such as reliability standards, domestic mobile roaming and reasonable automatic compensation measures when the service they pay for fails them," Ms Bennett said.

 “We know that delivering mobile coverage is crucial in delivering health services and continuity of care to people living in rural areas. We need action now and the 12-month timeframe for this inquiry could delay equity for longer.”

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) is Australia’s peak communication consumer organisation. The operation of ACCAN is made possible by funding provided by the Commonwealth of Australia under section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. This funding is recovered from charges on telecommunications carriers.

Alec Bennetts
Mobile: 0490 540 444
Email: [email protected]