British providers of services of fixed telephone and Internet networks have entered into an agreement - each subscriber will automatically receive compensation to the account.
The reason for the payments was delays in emergency repairs of infrastructure.
/Unsplash/Nick Fewings
Who is involved in the initiative and how it appeared
Introduce automatic payments to individuals for taking too long to repair networks in 2017 organization - it regulates the activities of telecommunications companies in the UK. According to Ofcom, telecoms losses to users of the home Internet and telephone only in one case out of seven, if we are talking about emergency situations.
Payments average Β£3,69 per day for out of service and Β£2,39 per day for provider-initiated repair rescheduling. But the regulator considered these amounts insufficient. So small businesses also suffer from a small amount of compensation - about 30% of such companies in the UK telecom services for individuals due to their low price.
The largest British telecom providers have joined Ofcom. BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Zen Internet have already entered into an agreement, Hyperoptic and Vodafone will be part of the initiative during 2019, and EE in 2020. These organizations serve 95% of UK fixed internet and landline users.
How the indemnity process works
All participating providers provide services to customers through Openreach's network infrastructure. It is responsible for the maintenance of cable and fiber optic networks. In the event of a long restoration of communication lines, Openreach will pay telecoms, after which the latter will cover the losses of their customers. Subscribers will receive payments to their personal account to pay for the Internet or telephone within 30 calendar days after the incident. The agreement establishes a fixed amount of compensation:
- Β£8 per day for no internet or phone connection due to network outage. Payments begin if the service has not been restored within two business days.
- Β£5 per day for a delayed start of the service. Compensation will be charged to new telecom customers who were unable to start using the Internet or telephone within the period specified by the provider.
- Β£25 to cancel an engineer's visit. Clients will be compensated if Openreach specialists do not show up at the scheduled time or cancel the visit less than a day before it.
There are also cases in which providers will not pay compensation. For example, a user of telecom services will lose the right to damages if he does not agree to a repair service visit at the time suggested for recording. Also, compensation will not be paid if connection problems are caused by a natural disaster or occur through the fault of the client. Providers have already started switching to the new reimbursement scheme on April 1, 2019. Companies will have 15 months to prepare for automated compensation payments.
Pros and cons of the scheme
The advantage of Ofcom's plan is that it will benefit consumers of services - individuals, as well as small and medium-sized companies. Providers went to meet customers, and Openreach agreed to pay compensation even in cases where it cannot fix the network through no fault of its own. For example, if access to the equipment is blocked by a parked car.
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But there are also "gray areas" in the agreement, which may already have a negative impact on providers. For example, Ofcom does not require compensation in the event of a natural disaster, but does not include damage caused by delayed repairs due to bad weather.
On the other hand, the agreement does not cancel compensation in the event of other force majeure circumstances, such as strikes by employees. The problem has not yet been resolved, and providers may suffer losses if a compromise solution is not reached together with the regulator.
What is compensated in other countries
In Australia, the absence of an Internet connection or telephone connection is compensated according to the requirements of the Commission for the Protection of Competition and Consumer Rights (ACCC). Customers may receive a billing deduction for days when the provider's services were unavailable, or offset the cost of alternative services. For example, if he was forced to use the mobile Internet, the telecom should reimburse him for communication costs.
In Germany, there is a similar practice, but with more interesting wording. So in 2013 a German court Internet connection is "an integral part of life" and ruled that the Internet service provider must necessarily compensate for the lack of connection.
The British indemnity scheme stands out from the crowd. So far, it is the only one of its kind when telecom customers receive compensation automatically. Probably, if the initiative is successful, similar projects will be considered in other countries.
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Source: habr.com