If your NBN or mobile plan keeps dropping out, delivers nowhere near the speeds you were promised, or you've moved somewhere it simply isn't available — you are not automatically locked into paying an early termination fee to walk away. Telecom contracts in Australia are closely regulated, and providers that fail to deliver the service they sold, or that stonewall your cancellation request, have real regulatory exposure through the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).
When a termination fee becomes illegal
If a provider changes contract terms unilaterally (raising your monthly price without proper notice) or consistently fails to deliver the connection speeds it promised at your address, the provider is the one in breach — not you. Charging an exit penalty in that situation is not something you have to accept.
Why providers move fast once the TIO is involved
Telcos pay ongoing membership costs to participate in the TIO scheme, and cases that progress add to that cost. It's often genuinely cheaper for a provider to release you from a contract for free than to let a dispute run through the TIO process — which gives you real leverage.
A note on the rules currently protecting you
Telco consumer protections in Australia are in the middle of a significant shift. The Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code — the industry-written rulebook that's covered sales, contracts, and billing since 2019 — was formally rejected by the ACMA in early 2026 as inadequate, and the regulator is now replacing it with a directly enforceable government standard. Until that new standard takes effect, the 2019 TCP Code remains technically in force, so the protections described here still apply — but it's worth knowing the framework itself is being tightened, not weakened, in the near future.
The cancellation paper trail
Send an explicit cancellation request in writing — email or an official chat transcript — and keep a copy showing the date and your clear intent to end the service.
Lodging with the TIO
You need to try your provider first. If they ignore your request, keep billing you, or demand an unreasonable exit fee, lodge a complaint at tio.com.au. In most cases, the TIO gives the provider 10 business days to resolve it directly with you before escalating further.
What tends to happen next
Once a case is referred, it typically lands with a provider's dedicated resolutions team, which has a strong incentive to close it quickly — waiving remaining contract charges, crediting you for periods of poor service, and processing the cancellation, rather than letting the case escalate through the TIO's higher-tier investigation stages.