The June quarter statistics also showed increases in complaints about delays in telephone connections and credit control practices of service providers, and a decrease in complaints about customer transfer.
The proportion of complaints about Internet services rose to 7.2% the TIO's total complaint load, compared to 5.3% in the previous quarter. Mr Pinnock noted that this is most likely due to increasing awareness of the TIO among Internet users.
"The increasing proportion of Internet service complaints to the TIO is an indication that Internet users have a better understanding of how to gain redress if they do not receive reasonable service. This may result in greater pressure on the ISP industry to develop industry-wide codes of practice," said Mr Pinnock.
Complaints about Internet access rose to 21.3% of all Internet complaints compared to 17.2% for the previous quarter. More than two-thirds of these were from Internet users complaining that their ISP had denied them Internet access. ISPs may cancel access on the grounds that the user breached the ISP's terms and conditions or used the service in an illegal manner. The remainder were complaints about slow down-load speeds and inability to log on due to congestion.
Complaints about the provision of telephone services, including delays in new telephone connections, increased to 14.5% of all telephone service complaints compared to 13.4% for the previous quarter.
Credit control complaints increased to 10.5% of telephone complaints compared to 7.3% for the previous quarter. More than one-third of credit control complaints related to risk management policies of telecommunications companies, such as not providing long-distance services to customers with poor credit histories, while 44% related to disputed long-term debts.
"The TIO cannot deal with complaints about the internal credit management policies of telephone companies, however we can investigate complaints where this policy is not consistently applied," said John Pinnock.
Complaints about faults remained the same as in the previous quarter at 11.8% of all telephone service investigation issues, the highest level of fault complaints ever recorded by the TIO.
Complaints about telephone billing remained the greatest source of complaint to the TIO at 29.6% of all telephone service issues. Complaints about customer transfer, including delays and unauthorised transfer, reversed a long-term trend and decreased to 7.9% of all telephone service complaints compared to 10.2% for the previous quarter.
