Monday March 27, 2006 |
News
BY PAUL C.H. HOW, Reporter
Congressman seeks investigation of Smart and Bayantel for unsatisfactory service
A lawmaker has called for an investigation of poor internet service allegedly provided by two telecommunications companies, saying concerned agencies had not addressed consumer complaints.
Compostela Valley Rep. Manuel E. Zamora filed House Resolution 1197 for the House information technology committee to determine how widespread such service problems are, and to provide appropriate protection to affected consumers.
Mr. Zamora cited a newspaper article that claimed the wireless broadband (wi-fi) service of Smart Communications, Inc. and the digital subscriber line (DSL) service of Bayan Telecommunications, Inc. had failed to give customers satisfactory service as advertised.
"It is clear that the consumers are being shortchanged and are on the losing end," Mr. Zamora said, adding that customer service hotlines had been unreachable because these could not handle the barrage of complaints.
"Many of these consumers have labeled the problem as a rip-off because they are continuously being billed monthly as a result of the 'locked-in period' clause in their subscription, preventing them from ending the service," he said.
Although consumer complaints have reached the Department of Trade and Industry, Mr. Zamora said the agency had instead referred the complaints to the National Telecommunications Commission.
"The government is reportedly maintaining a 'hands-off' policy when it comes to dealing with consumer issues in a deregulated business environment such as that of the telecommunications industry," he said. He called for sanctions to be handed out to telecommunications companies found unable to provide the services they promise.
Ramon Isberto, Smart public affairs head, admitted that because wi-fi is a relatively new service, companies providing it are still on rollout mode, and technical problems are part of the service's "growth pains."
Still, he claimed there are more satisfied customers than those who experience recurring problems. "In many cases, customers are given internet access through broadband, where otherwise it would not be possible to have a connection," he said in an interview.
Bayantel Vice-President Joevel Rivera said internet service problems were more the exception than the rule, but admitted that because DSL bandwidth is shared by many people, "the service is sometimes not very good."
He said any technical problems Bayantel had were also experienced by other service providers. The company, he added, continuously upgrades its system capacity. "To ensure that we have sufficient bandwidth, whenever we hit the 70% utilization mark, we begin an upgrade," he told BusinessWorld.
http://www.itmatters.com.ph/news.php?id=032706b
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