Optus' shuttered Virgin Mobile wins another telco customer service award

Optus' shuttered mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Virgin Mobile has won another customer service award, taking out the Roy Morgan Mobile Phone Service Provider Monthly Customer Satisfaction Award with a score of 88 percent for August.

This marked a 12 percent rise from its score this time last year, Roy Morgan added, with Aldi Mobile coming in second at an 84 percent customer satisfaction rating for August, up by 14 percent from last year.

"Both Virgin Mobile and Aldi Mobile have achieved multiple victories in the Mobile Phone Service Provider category in 2018, and are the leading contenders to take out the 2018 Annual Award with four months to go," Roy Morgan said, adding that Virgin Mobile had won the award back in 2012 while Aldi Mobile took it out in 2015.

Virgin Mobile's score shows that despite the phasing out of its brand in Australia, it is "still supporting its customer base to a high standard", Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said.

"The estimated three quarters of a million Virgin Mobile customers are set to transition to Optus contracts over the next two years, although the uncertainty facing existing Virgin's customers provides a huge potential market for rival telcos such as Telstra and Vodafone to tap into as they search for new customers," Levine added.

"Despite the consolidation in the industry with the closure of Virgin, there is still a significant market for resellers to compete with the established networks of Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone as Australia heads towards 5G networks in 2019."

Vodafone Australia was up by 3 percent for a rating of 78 percent; Optus was down by 1 percent for a score of 77 percent; and Telstra came in last, down by 3 percent from last year to a total customer satisfaction score of 74 percent for August 2018.

"Amaysim and iiNet are yet to win a monthly award in 2018, and were out of the top five providers in August," Levine said.

With Virgin Mobile using the Optus network and Aldi Mobile the Telstra network, Roy Morgan also averaged out the "underlying mobile networks", giving Optus an overall customer satisfaction score of 78 percent, while Vodafone Australia scored 77 percent and Telstra 75 percent.

In July, Virgin Mobile similarly received top ranking in an Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) report on telco provider customer service.

According to ACCAN's report, barring Virgin Mobile, Vodafone provided the best service, followed by TPG/iiNet, Amaysim, Dodo/iPrimus, Skymesh, Telstra, Optus, Activ8me, and in last place Telstra-owned Belong.

Optus had in May confirmed that it would be phasing out its Virgin Mobile Australia subsidiary over the next two years, with retail stores closing in June.

Virgin Mobile stopped upgrading and selling new post-paid mobile and broadband services as of June 15, although existing customers can continue using their service as normal, with all current contracts being honoured.

"This decision comes as a result of a strategic review of the Optus and Virgin Mobile brands which was recently conducted ahead of the approaching expiry of the Virgin Mobile brand licence in 2020," the phase-out FAQs explain.

Virgin Mobile has been continually losing market share, according to Kantar, with the market research company in November reporting the telco had lost 0.4 percentage points down to holding just 4 percent of the total Australian mobile market.

Optus has been wholesaling its 4G network to its Virgin Mobile subsidiary since 2014.

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