The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has issued formal warnings to three telecommunications companies for failing to join the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) scheme.
The warnings were sent to prison calling telco Telink Australia, franchise telco Account Management Australia Pty Ltd and software company telco Protech Solutions WA Pty Ltd.
Business unified telco Hosted Telecommunications Pty Ltd was not a member at the time ACMA finalised its investigation, and was only directed to join the TIO scheme.
ACMA investigations found that all four telcos breached the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 by failing to join the scheme when required. Eligible Australian telcos are legally obligated to join the TIO scheme and comply with decisions made by the TIO.
The TIO scheme is an independent dispute-resolution service for customers with an unresolved complaint about their phone or internet service. By not joining the scheme, the four telcos denied their customers proper access to dispute-resolution avenues, the TIO stated.
All four telcos are now members.
Dispute-resolution and complaint services remain important, considering customer complaints and criticisms levelled at some telcos. For example, the TIO recently slammed telcos for complaints about mobile services. The watchdog’s report ‘Investigating complaints about essential mobile services’, stated that between July 2020 and March 2022, overall complaints decreased while mobile-related complaints increased to 63,000, higher than internet, landline and multiple services complaints combined. Earlier this year, the ACMA published a report finding that telcos needed to improve how they handled small business complaints.
The ACMA is able to seek Federal Court penalties of up to $10 million for companies that fail to comply with decisions of the TIO, and up to $50,000 for each contravention by an individual.
Recently, the ACMA took Sydney-based telco Limni Enterprises, formerly known as Red Telecom, to court in 2019 for failing to comply with decisions of the TIO, by failing to pay its customers more than $63,000 for complaint resolution. The Court imposed penalties of $450,000 against Limni Enterprises. All customers have been paid the owed amounts.
The ACMA encourages people to check if their telco provider is a member of the TIO scheme so they have access to the necessary services.
Last month, Optus mobile virtual network operator Circles.Life was fined $199,800 by the ACMA for not running enough customer identity checks to prevent scams. Earlier this month, Aussie Broadband was fined $213,120 by the ACMA for not properly recording phone numbers in a directory service used by emergency services and law enforcement agencies.
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