New figures from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman show a sharp rise in complaints about phone and internet services, with outages increasing by 41.6 per cent between September and December 2025.
A total of 14,017 complaints were made during the period, with residential consumers responsible for nearly 90 per cent of them, while small businesses contributed just over 10 per cent. The Ombudsman says it reflects growing frustration as more Australians depend on stable connectivity for work, study and daily life.
It comes after Optus suffered service outages for users in the Hunter last year, and as Telstra announced upgrades to their network impacting services near Singleton for next week.
Digital platform complaints also hit record highs last year, increasing by 20 per cent. Account access issues (including blocks, lockouts and hacking) remain the most common problem.
