AUSTRALIANS are increasingly frustrated with unreliable mobile services and mounting telco bills, according to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s (TIO) 2024–25 Annual Report.
The TIO received 57,592 complaints in the past fi nancial year, up 1.6 per cent from 2023–24, with mobile issues making up 44.7 per cent of all cases.
The report shows mobile reliability problems persisted aft er the 3G network shutdown, with complaints from people left without a working service soaring 69.2 per cent, and poor coverage reports rising 25.2 per cent.
Financial hardship complaints also climbed sharply up 46.1 per cent as many struggled to pay their telco bills. Mobile services accounted for 66.9 per cent of these hardship cases.
While Telstra, Optus and Vodafone again topped the complaint list, unresolved cases increased 36.9 per cent, showing more customers had to return to the TIO aft er their provider failed to fi x the issue.