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In response to press enquiries on an article on mobile broadband service survey published by the Consumer Council in its CHOICE magazine today (March 15), the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) indicated that in view of the increasing popularity of mobile broadband service, OFTA has taken a number of initiatives recently with a view to increasing the level of customer satisfaction in using innovative telecommunications services and to providing a fair regulatory environment conducive to business investment.
"OFTA is well aware of the increasing popularity of the mobile broadband service, and has been keeping a close watch of the fast developing market. We have been liaising closely with the Consumer Council on this matter," a spokesperson of OFTA said.
"To fulfil the expectations of the community and the industry in regard to new and innovative services like the mobile broadband service, OFTA has taken the following initiatives:
- Mobile network operators will publish their performance pledges beginning the second half of 2010. The pledges cover aspects such as technical performance, network reliability and service restoration time. This should help enable consumers to make better-informed choice of mobile broadband service.
- OFTA issued a new Code (CoP) for Communications Service Contracts in February. This provides the industry with guidelines on what constitute fair, balanced and reasonable service contracts for both the consumers and the industry. The CoP provides, among other things, that service contracts must be written in easy to understand language, and that 30 days notice must be given by the service provider if it is to impose any unilateral change to the terms and conditions of the contract. If the change constitutes a material change to the quality of service or the price, the customer will have the right to terminate the contract by giving 15 days notice.
- OFTA will promulgate a set of best practice indicators in relation to making representations concerning mobile broadband speed to which the operators can make reference when promoting their services and products," the spokesperson elaborated.
"OFTA has taken prompt actions to help resolve consumer complaints. From June 2009 to January 2010, we received a total of 170 consumer complaints on mobile broadband services. More than 50% of the cases have been settled so far after our coordination. Regarding the complaints concerning the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) of one service provider, we are investigating whether such practice constitutes misleading or deceptive conduct, which is prohibited under Section 7M of the Telecommunications Ordinance," the spokesperson added.
"We will continue to monitor closely the market situation and effectiveness of the measures implemented. If necessary, we will step up our effort and introduce other measures," the spokesperson emphasized.
"Moreover, as part of our on-going initiatives to empower the consumers so that they may make better-informed choices of mobile broadband service, we organize throughout the year various consumer education programmes, including free seminars in the weekends and publication of consumer alerts in the printed media," the spokesperson said.
Background
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It is a common practice for mobile network operators (MNOs) all over the world to implement Fair Usage Policies (FUP) to safeguard network stability and safety.
While MNOs in Hong Kong are permitted to implement FUP as long as they comply with the law and their licence conditions, OFTA has kept reminding MNOs to review regularly the terms of their FUP and provide customers with the relevant information in a transparent manner.
Regarding the recent complaints concerning FUP, OFTA took prompt actions to urge the industry to resolve promptly the problem and the complaints. As of March 15, 2010, OFTA has received 127 complaints concerning FUP (these complaint cases are in addition to the 170 cases mentioned above). Thanks to the joint effort of OFTA and the industry, the number of complaints concerning FUP has subsided considerably since mid February 2010 (among the 127 complaint cases received, 119 were received on or before February 12).
In order that consumers may be better informed when choosing their service providers and service plans, OFTA has published a consumer alert on mobile data services on February 12, 2010:
www.ofta.gov.hk/en/c_alert/c_alert_20100212.pdf
Please also refer to the speaking notes by Director-General of Telecommunications at www.ofta.gov.hk/en/speech-presentation/2010/20100209.pdf on OFTA's general views on consumer affairs.
Ends/Monday, March 15, 2010
Issued at HKT 20:09
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