Telstra, Australia largest telecommunications company, has been recently criticized for overstating its mobile coverage. Recent reports have shown that the promised coverage of its network was dependent on customers having to use a separate antenna. The continued oversight lasted until May. That’s shortly after the company updated its website to explain that coverage area figure was contingent upon this extra gear. The oversight arrives as complaints over dropped calls and other connection problems have surged from consumers, especially in rural areas.
This controversy has highlighted the fact that Telstra’s claim of a competitive advantage that its mobile network reaches 99.7 percent of the population is utter nonsense. Vicki Brady, the new chief executive of Telstra, strongly endorses this assertion. To that end, she stresses the company has conducted millions of tests to back up its coverage data. Consumer advocacy group Ajust logged more than 500 complaints in the past two years. As a result, daily customers are left to wonder if these numbers are real.
Consumer Concerns and Complaints
Ajust founder Tom Kaldor pointed to a worrying trend. The majority of the complaints they handled were related to network and coverage concerns, with a third of their inquiries classified as such. Their call volume from Telstra customers has soared and is up ten times over this time last year.
Kaldor explained that the effects of deficient connectivity go beyond the monetary reproach. “Consumers are making purchasing decisions based on promises of internet speeds and mobile coverage,” he stated. “If those things are incorrect, they’re definitely paying too much because they’re not getting the service that they deserve.”
First-hand accounts from consumers cut straight to the heart of the matter. In regional Queensland, one individual drives over 40 kilometers daily without reliable signal coverage, while another resident in Western Australia struggles to communicate with a sick partner due to poor connection quality.
Telstra’s Response
In answer to tough questions from customers, Vicki Brady doubled down on the company’s pledge to work on these but continue to face them head on. “Just to be really clear, we have 3 million square kilometers of coverage that does not require you to have an external antenna,” she said. Freedom Brady underscored that customers love the flexibility of going month-to-month—no contracts, no strings attached. This flexibility allows them to more easily change providers if they are dissatisfied with their provider’s service.
“When we got challenged on it recently, we did take the time to go back over that,” she remarked, expressing confidence in Telstra’s network capabilities. “We ran additional testing just to be 100 percent sure in our labs and so, yes, we stand by this.”
For all these positive assertions, industry experts such as Mark Gregory have been warning for many years now about the unreliability of Telstra’s announcements. “Whilst the coverage maps might indicate that you should expect to be able to get some signal, the ability to actually carry out a conversation or some type of a connection like a FaceTime or Google talk with someone else, it’s not often possible,” Gregory stated.
Industry Implications
The battle sheds even broader light on truly egregious gaps between claimed capabilities and actual consumer experience. Tony Kourahanis (pictured above, right) lives only five kilometers from Sydney’s central business district. Even though he pays $140 a month for his Telstra service, for decades he has faced internet and mobile phone service problems. He’s the first to call on the federal government over the past decade to help fill in the gaps in solving these long-standing connectivity issues.
Gregory continued that the government’s failure to be supportive may worsen the telecommunications problems Australians already have. “I have been calling on the current government before and since the election to again fund the development of a system that will provide us with this information because without this we’re still going to have what we’ve got now, which is the hit-and-miss nature of telecommunications in Australia,” he remarked.
Consumers are not having it, and they’re taking it out on Telstra’s reputation and the consumer market. As such, the company is facing colossal pressure to improve its services and clarify its coverage capabilities.
