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More Complaints concerning Quality of Communications Services
10.02.2015
In 2014, the Romanian Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) received 1,684 complaints from the communications users, by 46% more than in 2013. Almost half of these complaints concerned aspects related to the contracts concluded in writing with the operators or to the distance contracts, whereas the number of complaints related to the quality of communications services doubled as compared to 2013.
In 2014, the main source of dissatisfaction among the Romanian communications users continued to be the contractual relationship with theproviders of electronic communications services – 45% of the total complaints lodged with ANCOM concerned this issue. The users complained about the execution, extension and termination of the contracts or the non-inclusion of certain minimum mandatory provisions in the contracts, as well as about the fact that the providers did not respond to the complaints or requests of contract termination submitted by the users.
The quality of the electronic communications service is a matter increasingly brought to the Authority’s attention, the complaints received in 2014 being twice as numerous as in 2013. The majority of these complaints referred to the lack or loss of the mobile telephony or mobile internet signal, in particular inside the buildings, as well as to the fact that the actual data transfer speed is significantly lower than the maximum speed advertised by the providers in their offers.
With regard to the mobile telephony signal, the Authority undertakes periodical controls in order to verify the compliance with the minimum obligations imposed on the operators under the licences, but these obligations concern the coverage with mobile services of a certain share of the national territory. Furthermore, the quality of these services is influenced by several external factors, such as the weather conditions or the landscape profile, the building structures or the network congestion.
As for the transfer speed of the internet access service, the users should know that the maximum speed specified by the internet providers in their offers, known as “best-effort” speed or “up to” speed, is only a theoretical maximum speed and its achievement is influenced by certain factors such as the end-user terminal equipment and the quality of the access line. By Decision no.1201/2011, ANCOM imposed on the operators the obligation to include in the contracts concluded with the end-users both the maximum speed and the minimum guaranteed speed. If the operators do not ensure a minimum guaranteed speed, they should explicitly specify that in the contracts. Moreover, ANCOM made available to the users the application www.netograf.ro, where they can test and monitor free of charge the quality of their internet service.
Other matters signalled by the users in 2014 referred to the porting of telephone numbers (12%), misunderstandings concerning the billing of the services (10%), technical faults in the supply of services (7%), as well as the quality of the postal services (5%).
As for the categories of electronic communications services (telephony, internet and audiovisual programme retransmission), the most numerous complaints the Authority received in 2014 concerned mobile telephony (39% of the total complaints), followed by fixed internet access services (11%) and fixed telephony (8%). The ANCOM aggregated data for 2014 show that most of the complaints lodged by the users concerned the electronic communications services provided by RCS&RDS (18%), Cosmote RMT (15%), Vodafone Romania (13%), Orange Romania (12%) and Romtelecom (12%).
ANCOM may intervene directly only in the cases where the providers (of telephone, internet or television services) breach the users’ information rights, do not offer the number portability service, do not include certain information in the contract or do not observe the specific legislation in the field of electronic communications and postal services. The complaints concerning the non-observance of the contractual conditions should be addressed by the users-natural persons to ANPC – the Consumer Protection Authority, the institution entitled to intervene in such situations. The users-legal persons who consider that the contractual provisions are not respected may address the Court. Further details are available under the InfoCentre section on the ANCOM webpage.
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