If we can pick up the telephone and get a dial tone 99.9 percent of the time, then it's no wonder customers are getting a little peeved of late at the number of lost Internet connections by service providers.

In response to concerns raised by the telecommunications industry ombudsman on ABC radio, the Australian Telecommunications User Group (ATUG) says that Internet Service Providers are today's communication platform, which is why acceptable levels of service standards need to be established.

-The Internet is more complicated than voice services but this should not be a deterrent," director Rosemary Sinclair told ZDNet.

Given increased business participation on the Internet and the amount of services available to users, Sinclair says, -it is simply not good enough that the service is sometimes on and sometimes off and we still have to pay for it."

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) John Pinnock has raised concerns over the increased number of complaints about lost Internet connections that have arisen and the uncertainty of users as to what level of service to expect.

-We're all, in a sense, new at using the Internet, in relative terms, but the other [problem] is simply this situation that non-one's quite sure what sort of standard of service to expect," Pinnock told the ABC.

-I think by now that's somewhat of an indictment on the Internet industry generally."

The TIO said it received more than 2000 complaints about ISP's in just three months, many of which were related to access.

A recent announcement by the federal government will see AU$50 million pumped into a national online help service to raise the Internet speed to 19.2 kilobits per second, no matter where users are in Australia.

Telstra is working in collaboration with the government on this service.

So, if the government is working towards a nationwide speed standard, the next thing will be to work towards setting standards for the availability of service, Sinclair said.

-We're use to being able to pick up the phone and get a dial tone 99.9 percent of the time and have to work towards achieving this same level of service on the Internet," she said.

Recently, Telstra customers submitted a class action against Australia's number one telco for problems experienced with its high-speed Internet connection.

More than 300 customers have joined in the class action, saying that Telstra has not provided an acceptable standard of service on its Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL).

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