”The users will finally be aware of the exact amounts they have to pay, of the services they pay for and of the duration of their agreements with the electronic communications providers. The invoices for fixed or mobile telephony, as well as that for Internet access services will be clear and accurate, the users will be able to thoroughly read the agreements before signing and the full costs will be minutely detailed”, the ANC President, Mr. Liviu Nistoran, declared during a press conference organised today, on the adoption of the decision regarding the electronic communications operators’ obligation to inform the users.
According to the decision adopted and sent to the Romanian Official Journal, the providers of telephone services have the obligation to better inform their customers on the services offered and on the tariffs charged, enabling them to reach the correct and informed decision that fully satisfies their needs. Moreover, the operators will have to offer details on the connecting conditions, the terms of use of the telephone services, the end-users’ rights, the contract terms and on the complaint settlement procedure. Although the providers currently offer a wide range of information, this is often difficult to acknowledge, as the user receives countless offers and special offers, most of which being bound by various details (illegibly provided as footnotes, end notes etc.). Furthermore, the users find tariff comparison extremely difficult, given the diversity and complexity of the tariff packages offered by various providers.
Prior to concluding the contract, the operators’ sales personnel will have the obligation to communicate their customers, orally or – upon request – in written paperback or electronic format, at least the following data: the tariff plan they chose, including the contract value for the total initial duration, specifying the included services – monthly subscription (number of minutes/credit included, for subscriptions with credit), additional options, connection/installation, terminal equipment purchased etc., as the case may be, with all the taxes included; tariffs applicable for access, as well as for the national calls, the tariffs for calls during peak hours/off-peak hours (indicating the respective time intervals) and the minimum requirements for the use of the included minutes/credit; the minimum contract duration and the termination conditions together with the applicable penalties.
Furthermore, where a contract for the provision of publicly available telephone services is automatically extended and subsequent unilateral termination triggers penalties upon the user, the users will have to inform their users by SMS or by means of the invoice on the contract expiry date, which is the latest date for sending the notification.
Another new obligation of all the providers of electronic communications services (telephony and Internet) is that of making available to all the users, by means of detailed invoices, pieces of information such as: the charging period; monthly tariff charged for the subscription; tariffs charged for connection/installation/reconnection/disconnection; tariffs charged for equipment lease/provision; other monthly tariffs for additional services; free offerings/tariff reductions from which the subscriber has benefited and their application details; occasional services provided and the corresponding tariffs; exhaustive list of the initiated calls and of the sent messages, as well as of the received calls and messages.
Moreover, the providers will have to make available to ANC the data required so that the Authority could launch an Internet portal which enables the public to compare the tariffs and conditions offered by the fixed, mobile telephony and broadband Internet providers, by means of an ”interactive tariff guide”. The application will prompt the user with a set of consumption options based on which it makes a comparative analysis of the offers on the market (as fed into the database), ranking the most advantageous prices.
”This price comparison application will enable the users to choose the offer that suits them best. Thus, the effort of spending a couple of hours on the Internet or a couple of days in the dealers’ shops in search of the best offer will turn into minutes, due to the interactive tariff guide. This is one of the most important decisions that ANC adopted complementing the user-oriented steps, such as those on number portability, unlocked telephone sets and the reduction of the interconnection tariffs”, the ANC President added.