063/06
27 June 2006

Phone connection and fault repair performance strong in March quarter

The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s Telecommunications Performance Data report for the March 2006 quarter, released today, showed strong overall performance from the industry in meeting timeframes for phone connections and fault repairs, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan said.

The report outlines the performance of AAPT, Optus, Primus and Telstra in complying with their Customer Service Guarantee obligations covering fixed phone services, in particular the time it takes to connect and repair telephone services.

“Telstra has performed strongly, completing 97 per cent of its in-place connections and
96 per cent of its new service connections within the timeframes set down by the Australian Government’s Customer Service Guarantee (CSG),” Senator Coonan said.

“Optus’ performance on connections was even stronger, with 99 per cent of new service connections completed within the CSG timeframes, while the performance of AAPT was stable at 95 per cent and Primus improved from 89 to 93 per cent in the 12 months to March 2006.

“In relation to fault repair, both Optus and Telstra maintained their high performance in meeting the CSG timeframes, reporting levels of 94 and 93 per cent respectively during the quarter nationally.

“Telstra’s priority assistance performance has also remained high, reporting more than 94 per cent for both compliance with priority timeframes for connections nationally and compliance with priority fault repair timeframes nationally.

“Priority assistance customers with life threatening medical conditions are entitled to faster repair and connection timeframes and it is important that Telstra maintains its commitment to providing fast turn around times for these customers. 

“Meanwhile Telstra has improved the time it takes on average to repair a payphone fault since the corresponding March 2005 quarter.

“Despite the overall positive outcome on the CSG for the March 2006 quarter, I am still conscious of improving the processes for fault reduction. I am currently in discussions with Telstra in relation to strengthening the Network Reliability Framework (NRF) to better target reliability issues in regional, rural and remote areas.

“The NRF amendments under consideration are expected to significantly improve the remediation activity undertaken by Telstra.”

The Telecommunications Performance Data is available online at http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.458992:STANDARD::pc=PC_100645