ANACOM - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações has decided to advance with the definition of quality of service parameters, which companies providing Internet access services must measure. The resulting information will then be made available to consumers.
The quality of service parameters which the companies providing Internet access services must measure and report are: The time taken to supply Internet access, the rate by customer of malfunction occurrence, the time taken to rectify malfunctions, response times for customer support services, and response times for customer complaints and information requests.
ANACOM has taken the decision to set these parameters in response to the high number of complaints that is has received about the quality of Internet access services. A large part of these complaints result from consumers not being sufficiently informed about the quality of services being offered by the companies providing them. As such ANACOM sees it as important that end users are provided with information that they can use to compare levels of quality between different providers, before and at the moment they enter into a contract with a provider. As such they can make an informed decision about which provider to choose.
As a result of ANACOM's decision, the companies providing Internet access services must, for each stipulated parameter, provide information on actual minimum levels of quality and on the minimum levels of quality that they propose to offer to each customer. This information shall then form part of the service contracts that customers enter into.
Information about service quality must also be posted and made available to users in written form at all points where such services are being sold and on the companies' websites - where available - in a visible and easily identifiable form.
As well as informing the public, the companies must also inform the regulator about the quality levels of their services, according to each defined parameter.
The respective draft decision of the regulator will now be put up for public consultation lasting 30 working days, with companies being obliged to measure the quality levels of their services from five months following the publication of the subsequent regulation.
The definition of quality parameters for Internet access services follows in the line of the work begun by the regulator in 2005, with the Regulation for Quality of Service in the fixed-line telephone service and the definition of quality of service parameters for the Universal Service. This follows the regulator's aim of making it increasingly possible for consumers to safeguard their interests. In the future ANACOM will also consider whether to include in the Regulation on the Quality of Service parameters on network performance, also in respect to Internet access services.
Consult:
- Draft Regulation sets out parameters for Internet Access Service Quality https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1081280
