Mobile users 'are second-class citizens'

Prepaid mobile-phone customers in Thailand have been clearly treated like second-class citizens as they are tied to substandard service contracts, says an independent telecom researcher.
Anuparb Thiralarb slammed the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for wilful neglect of its statutory duty to implement an international standard of regulation to stop mobile operators from taking what he described as “shameful advantage” of customers.
The Telecom Consumer Institute (TCI) has also come under severe criticism for failing to sincerely help tackle unfair treatment or harassment of prepaid users.
Mr Anuparb hit out at a recent move by the TCI for urging the NTC to apply two proposed measures on prepaid subscription as a “fake action movie”, with no real intention of assisting consumers.
The two measures called for operators to provide a minimum of one-year refill card validity and a full refund of call value left on prepaid SIM cards after customers stop using their services.
Prepaid customers are unable to transfer unused call value and validity from one operator to another.
These two measures fall in line with the NTC’s regulations for standard telecom service contracts, which were implemented in 2005. The authority approved the measures in May.
Highlights of other measures specified in a standard telecom contract include customers having the right to temporarily halt their services if needed, SMS spam messages must receive prior approval from the recipient to receive solicitations, and operators can no longer cut off customers’ mobile services for any reason.
Mr Anuparb said he filed a petition with the Administrative Court against the NTC for wilful neglect of statutory duty five years ago. “I’m going to the National Anti-Corruption Commission before going to the Criminal Court.”
He said existing measures have forced customers to waste money. It is estimated that operators keep billions of baht from unused money left on prepaid SIM cards after customers stop using their services.
Thailand has 69 million mobile users, 90% of which use prepaid services.
Mr Anuparb added mobile operators in Thailand neglect to offer free basic services such as emergency call numbers.
Executives of Advanced Info Service (AIS) and DTAC said they have not yet started to comply with regulations because the NTC has not yet sent them a standard contract format. Operators said some conditions for regulations need to be discussed to find a fair resolution.
One said giving cash refunds to customers would be a problem as operators had already shared revenue with their concession owners and paid VAT on the value of each refill card, whether they were sold or not. The companies also have to pay a monthly fee to the NTC for keeping unused numbers.
Article via Bangkok Post