Telecommunications giant Telstra is understood to be trialling an in-the-cloud service that will allow it to monitor comments made about the company and its services on social network sites.

Preliminary findings of research conducted by StollzNow Research due to be released formally in a few weeks’ time show that telecommunications companies receive the most number of comments on social networking sites,  and the most negative commentary (71%).

The stakes are high as 23% of Australians reported that they had boycotted an organisation after reading a negative comment on the social web about how that organisation treats its customers.

Telstra is already under the gun over consumer complaints issued through more traditional channels. A report released this week showed that in the six months to June 62,514 complaints had been made to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman about Telstra – representing about half of all the complaints received.

Senator Stephen Conroy, the minister for minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy, this week said that number of consumer complaints being registered remains too high and that the industry is not doing enough. He said he had written to a number of organisations including the Communications Alliance, the TIO, and ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority) demanding that the telecommunications industry take immediate action to reduce the volume of complaints received by the TIO.

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