TPG, Vodafone’s owner in Australia, accuses Aussie Broadband of carrying, through Symbio, 98% of scam calls on the Vodafone network in one year. The analysis, July 2025 to July 2026, counts more than 24 million calls. Vanessa Hicks wants action closer to the source. It is an accusation plus a reply. It is not a regulator’s sanction. The Scams Prevention Framework, due next year, is not in force.

ABC quotes Aussie Broadband chief executive Brian Maher: Symbio has about 500 customers reselling numbers; each may resell further. Without sight of the chain, stopping scammers is hard. Where they find a persistent bad actor, they disconnect them. Detection software, a team of more than 20 people, further investment promised, with no figure for new staff. “It is unfortunate that they’ve called us out publicly, but we accept that they’re frustrated and we want to work with them.”

Symbio sells Australian numbers in bulk for internet calls. Hicks says TPG sends the data to Aussie Broadband with every campaign. It cannot simply “turn off” another carrier: milliseconds to judge a call. TPG denies commercial rivalry as the motive. ACMA, on a campaign in which callers posed as police, said the traffic was identified, notifications went upstream and blocking occurred; the apparent sources were overseas telcos; it did not find non-compliance by an Australian telco.

In 2024 the same regulator warned Symbio that it had not properly investigated scam calls. In 2022, another warning. Hicks is disappointed that fines did not follow. Old warnings are not Wednesday’s decision. Investigator Dan Halpin, on 8,000 numbers reported by the public, put Symbio first, ahead of larger Telstra. That is his analysis, not TPG’s. Optus and Telstra gave no figures. Optus: no single carrier is consistently the majority.

The Scams Prevention Framework, when it arrives, is expected to bring stricter duties and penalties of up to A$11 million, plus compensation. ACMA says telcos have reported blocking more than 3.12 billion scam calls since December 2020. Maher: Aussie is the largest wholesaler, so a higher share is to be expected. The pledge to work with TPG is a pledge. It is not a framework already applied.

Source consulted: Vodafone's owner accuses rival Aussie Broadband of being behind millions of scam calls to customers — ABC.

Image: the Sydney Opera House, 2019, Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The city, not the calls on Vodafone’s network.

Sources consulted: Major telco blames rival for scammers — ABC AM.