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1/13/2009
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The Nation (Thailand)
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The Telecom Consumer Protection Institute (TCPI) this year will focus on protecting consumer privacy and promoting reasonable service fees and equal service accessibility, says director Prawit Leesatapornwongsa.
For example, it will work out a policy for preventing mobile spam - unsolicited calls from telemarketers - and defining standard telecom service-fee rates.
He said the one-year-old TCPI planned to discuss with telecom operators the possibility of offering telecom-service packages customised to fit phone-use behaviours of the disabled.
"For example, people with a hearing problem should be offered an especially low-cost SMS package to help them save on communications costs," he said.
Consumers have remarked that last year, the TCPI focused too much on receiving complaints and creating a consumer network, Prawit said.
The TCPI will propose this year's action plan for its board's consideration soon, and the board will prioritise what the institute will do and forward that for National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) approval.
The institute's role is to create a consumer-protection network, educate consumers on their rights and propose consumer-protection policies to the NTC. It also receives consumer complaints and resolves disputes between consumers and telecom operators.
The TCPI received 260 complaints last year, mostly regarding billing errors and poor service quality.
Regarding service quality, Prawit said his institute had recently been receiving many complaints from CAT Telecom's labour union members, who are subscribers of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1x cellular service. They said it was difficult to connect to different networks.
Other complaints include incomplete information from mobile-content providers, such as how to cancel service subscriptions.
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