Optus named Australia’s most distrusted brand as telco confidence hits new lows

The release of new Roy Morgan data showing Optus has become Australia’s most distrusted brand, topping the rankings in October 2025, will come as no surprise to anyone. Peak national communications consumer body, ACCAN, says that this result is a predictable consequence of a self-regulatory system that has enabled industry misconduct and sent public confidence in telecommunications to historic lows.

Roy Morgan’s analysis sends a clear warning: distrust is dangerous. It is not a theoretical concern - its impacts are commercial, measurable, and already visible in the market.

Reliability problems were a major driver of distrust across the sector. The Triple Zero failures, nationwide outages and confusing or insufficient communication during crises have all contributed to a view that essential communications services are not being managed to community expectations.

Notably, Roy Morgan reported business decision-makers recorded 23% higher levels of distrust in Optus compared with the general public, underscoring substantial concern from organisations that rely on stable, responsive telecommunications services every day.

As Roy Morgan put it, trust is now every telcos’ essential currency, and it cannot be rebuilt through advertising campaigns or corporate messaging. Trust must be engineered into the system itself.

ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said the findings show the limits of a hands-off, industry-controlled self-regulatory structure.

“Under the current self-regulatory regime, trust in Australia’s major telcos has dropped to all-time lows. This isn’t surprising—because the rules governing the sector have no real teeth. We need strong, enforceable consumer protections to rebuild public confidence. Telcos have shown they cannot restore trust on their own – consumers experience of the service must be consistent with what they are being told they should expect.”

"We must see a comprehensive overhaul of consumer protections through the replacement of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Industry Code with direct regulation to reflect the essential nature of modern communications services.”

“Strong, enforceable standards are a fundamentally important step to rebuild trust in this sector,” Ms Bennett said.

“We need to modernise the telecommunications regime to reflect the reality that communications is an essential service and place the priority on the public interest through minimum performance standards so that we have reliable services,” Ms Bennett concluded.

Despite the broader decline in confidence, Roy Morgan’s data also highlights positive examples. Aussie Broadband retained its position as Australia’s most trusted telco brand, now multiple years in a row, demonstrating that trust grows when customer experience matches the service expectations set by providers.