Telco Complaints at Lowest Level in Decades, According to Latest Data

Telcos have delivered measurable improvements in customer service, with two reports in two days confirming that complaints about telecoms services are at historically low levels.

“The latest annual complaints data from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) revealed that complaints are at their lowest level in two decades,” said Luke Coleman, CEO of the Australian Telecommunications Alliance.

“Complaints to the TIO have plummeted by 68% since 2018, and there have been fewer than 60,000 complaints for three consecutive years. To put that in perspective, there are around 42 million mobile and broadband services in Australia – meaning that just 0.1% of telco services were the subject of a complaint to the TIO, an extraordinarily low figure,” Mr Coleman said.

“Complaints are consistently at their lowest level since 2003 – before the NBN, before 3G, and before the iPhone. While the average Australian is using their mobile and home broadband services more than ever before, the data clearly shows that telcos are delivering a better customer experience with fewer complaints than at any time on record,” he said.

The drop in complaints to the TIO was backed by new data from the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which revealed overall complaints by customers to their telcos had also dropped by 10.8% in 2025-26 compared to the previous year.

The latest ACMA complaints handling performance data showed that not only have overall complaints dropped, but also that average complaints per 10,000 services dropped from 40 to 39, the weighted average days to resolve complaints dropped from 5.3 to 4.7, and the rates of complaints being escalated to the TIO dropped from 7.2% to 6.6%.