A new report reveals which Australian telcos saw a rise in grumbles about their service, and which did better by their customers.
Aussie Broadband, Dodo, and Medion had an increase in complaints made about them to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in the 2021/22 financial year.
Negative feedback about Telstra decreased more than 40 per cent, while Optus and Vodafone also recorded a drop in complaints.
Poor mobile coverage continues to be the most common problem among phone users.
But complaints about phone and internet services plunged by one-third over the period.
The ombudsman received 79,534 complaints from small businesses and consumers.
The number of complaints related to poor coverage increased by 6.3 per cent, while a 9.9 per cent increase was recorded for service outages.
Poor mobile coverage was among the top ten issues in all states and territories except the ACT, and the only topic where complaints rose across the jurisdictions.
The states and territories recorded an overall drop in complaints for the last financial year.
Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert said it was pleasing to see a substantial drop in issues for consumers, but mobile coverage needed attention.
"Mobile services are essential for things like banking, shopping, accessing health and government services, and connecting socially, and consumers tell us their lives are disrupted when they experience problems with their mobile service," she said.
"While we've seen some great improvements, Australia's telcos need to do more to resolve complaints about mobile services, including poor mobile coverage, before consumers come to my office for help."
The ombudsman received 26,989 complaints about internet services, which represents a fall of 32.3 per cent compared to the previous period.
There were 6814 complaints about landline services, which was almost a halving of issues being reported.
