ICP-ANACOM approved a draft decision on the information that fixed and mobile telephone service operators, as well as entities that provide electronic communication services accessible to the public, must provide to consumers, and how they must provide it. These are basic items to assure the safeguard of consumer interests.
Under the terms of the regulator's draft decision, companies who provide fixed and mobile telephone service accessible to the public must disclose and publicize a set of information, ranging from the identification of the provider to the scope of the service provided, including detailed invoicing and maintenance.
Normal prices and discounts; compensation and reimbursement systems; types of maintenance service offered; typical contractual conditions, including minimum contractual periods, are some of the data that operators will have to publicize to consumers, together with information on litigation solving mechanisms.
According to the regulator's draft decision, which is subject to a 40-day public consultation, operators will have to inform users on the minimum levels of quality of service offered. Should the former not comply, they will have to pay compensations or reimbursements to the latter.
Regarding mobile services, items that the regulator wants properly disclosed to consumers are the geographic coverage area - including information by municipality on the areas of shade and of irregular communications where it is not possible to guarantee efficient use - or the minimum level of quality offered to customers in matters of damage repair.
In fact, regarding quality of service standards, ICP-ANACOM defined a set of indicators that must be taken into account by the operators. It is the case with the time for service admission, the maximum time for service interruption/suspension, damage repair and service disconnection and activation.
Other quality standards that ANACOM considers mandatory for the operators to define are the guarantee of minimum Internet access speed, the maximum time for compliance with a number portability or pre-selection order and the maximum time for reply to customer claims and information requests.
All the information to be disclosed by the operators must be advertised and publicized, in writing, on the providers' commercial establishments, their agents and their Internet sites. The information must be provided to consumers in written support and for free, in all of the service's selling points.
Should the subscription of the service imply the purchase of a package, the data now demanded by the regulator must be written on it, so that consumers can be informed without having to open the packages.
Under the terms of Regicom, it is ICP-ANACOM's duty to assure a high level of consumer protection against companies. On this matter, and before the approval of this draft decision, the regulator has already put for general consultation the minimum content to be included in contracts for the provision of electronic communication services, aiming at guaranteeing consumer protection regarding the signing of contracts and a better quality of the information included in these contracts. Also in connection with consumer rights protection, the regulator has also approved a fixed telephone quality of service regulation and launched a tariff simulator on its Internet site, www.anacom.pthttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=2958, in order to help mobile phone users to choose the best tariffs for their user type.
Consult:
- Object and form of public disclosure of the conditions of offer and use of electronic communication services https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1092423
