Optus is Australia's second-largest telecommunications group. Two years ago, Optus embarked on a complete business transformation to clearly differentiate its brand to lead in superior customer experience and to reshape the business to deliver future profit growth.

Over the last 12 months, Optus has made significant progress as it aspired to become Australia's most loved and recommended service brand. Optus kicked off the financial year with a public pledge to focus on addressing the issues that matter most to customers: offering simple products, delivering brilliant customer service and continuing to build a great network.

OFFERING SIMPLE PRODUCTS

Nothing upsets customers more than hidden charges or receiving a large, unexpected bill as a result of exceeding their voice or data caps. Optus acknowledged this frustration and led the market with the introduction of My Plan on 1 July 2013.

My Plan helps to protect customers from bill shock if they exceed their monthly voice or data plan inclusions by automatically giving them a block of extra minutes or data to use in that billing month at a cost of between A$5 to A$10.

The removal of large excess usage fees for voice and data has been critical in eliminating bill shock and providing Optus mobile customers with the certainty they need to use their mobile phones the way they want. My Plan also contributed to increased data revenues, with 31% of the My Plan customer base temporarily moving to a higher data tier each month as at 31 March 2014.

Optus also took action to reduce bill shock from high international data and voice roaming charges with a range of simple products with flat rates for customers travelling overseas. For example, the Optus Travel Pack offers customers an affordable A$10 per day plan, on top of their normal mobile plan charges, so that they can connect overseas without worry.

Optus also streamlined its products for its broadband customers with My Home and My Office Plans in November 2013. These plans target common broadband customer pain points by removing hidden fees and charges, eliminating compulsory contracts and making it easier for customers to increase their data when the need arises.

DELIVERING BRILLIANT SERVICE

Over the past 12 months, Optus has made significant progress by improving the way customers shop and interact with us through two critical channels: in-store and online.

Since July 2013, Optus has rebranded more than 100 stores by creating open and friendly spaces where customers can easily interact with products and service staff. Optus also took back control of the customer experience from third-party providers, distributors and stores. In the last year, Optus ended retail distribution arrangements with many third-party providers.

An increasing number of Optus customers are choosing to engage online, prompting a redesign of Optus' website. The new site incorporates artificial intelligence technology to answer customers' questions using instant messaging. The feature is proving popular with customers, and received 3 million questions in the site's first six months of operation.

Optus is on track to become Australia's most loved and recommended service brand. Customers are responding positively to the changes. This is reflected by an industry-leading decline in the number of new complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman over the last 12 months. Optus has also seen significant improvements in its NPS.

BUILDING A GREAT NETWORK

Optus is committed to building a strong and diverse network that meets customers' needs. Throughout the year, Optus made improvements to its mobile network including completing the largest upgrade of its 3G network and the rapid rollout of its multi-band 4G network over both the LTE 1800 MHz spectrum and the LTE 2300 MHz spectrum. As at 31 March 2014, the Optus mobile network reached 98.5% of the population, while our 4G network reached 75% of the metro population.

Bringing 4G to more Australians is the number one network priority for Optus. With a multi-band 4G strategy that combines low-band 700 MHz 4G frequency for strong coverage with high band 2300 MHz spectrum for increased network capacity, Optus is positioning itself to meet customers' demand for superfast 4G in more places. The upcoming availability of 2600 MHz and 700 MHz spectrum bands means we are preparing our network to provide 4G services on those frequencies to more customers, including those in regional areas in early 2015.

Optus constantly invests in technology and data analytics capacity to enhance the customer experience. By crowdsourcing data on black spots, call drop out locations, signal strength and in-building coverage, Optus continues to tailor its network improvements to cater to customers' needs and real-time experiences.

Optus is proactive in working closely with the Australian Government to ensure it can offer customers the best possible experience on the National Broadband Network (NBN). The NBN will provide Optus with a great opportunity in the coming year and will be a core focus for Optus' fixed product offerings.