Telephony service providers have significantly bettered the amount of time they take to improve service performance faults over the past quarter, according to the latest ACA carrier performance report.
The ACA reported all of the major carriers analysed in its Telecommunications Performance Monitoring Bulletin showed marked improvements in the way each dealt with fault rectification issues during the September 2003 quarter.
Figures recorded for Telstra during this period showed the carrier had improved its overall fault rectification performance across both national urban and regional areas by seven percentage points, repairing 93 per cent of faults within the timeframe required by the ACA under its Customer Service Guarantee (CSG).
“The largest improvement [for Telstra] of nine percentage points was recorded for national urban and rural fault rectification, while remote area performance remained stable at 94 per cent,” acting ACA chairman Dr Bob Horton said.
Optus also improved its overall national fault repair performance, increasing the number of faults repaired within the time prescribed by the CSG from 86.6 per cent to 93.5 per cent.
According to the CSG, faults identified in urban areas of more than 10,000 people should be rectified within one full working day after the fault has been reported. Faults identified in rural areas of between 250 and 10,000 people should be repaired within two full working days, while faults with telephony services in remote areas of less than 200 people should be fixed within three working days.
Dr Horton said Optus’ performance in connecting new services in urban areas however, has continually declined over the past four quarters.
The September quarter results were “attributable to service connection delays in New South Wales arising from peak connection levels,” Dr Horton said.
In addition, national new service connection performance by Telstra for areas with and without available infrastructure has remained stable at or above 91 per cent over the past six quarters, Dr Horton said.
Primus also recorded strong results for its new service connections, which were achieving national performance at above 96 per cent, Dr Horton said.
The CSG specifies that connection times for urban areas of more than 10,000 people should be completed within five days of the initial request if available infrastructure is in place, or within one month where infrastructure does not yet exist.
Connections for residents located major and minor rural areas of between 200 and 10,000 people should be completed within 10-15 days of the initial customer request if infrastructure is in place, or within six months if infrastructure is not yet available.
Dr Horton said performance in connecting in-place services remained high, with Telstra, Optus and Primus achieving at or above 96 per cent of connections within CSG timeframes.
Dr Horton added that an average of 99.2 per cent of all Telstra’s telephone services did not experience a fault during each calendar month from August to October 2003, representing an improvement over the previous quarter.
The ACA’s fault performance report includes services provided by Telstra, Optus, AAPT and Primus.