CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY CRIES OVER POOR SERVICES BY TELCOS

Story Reported by Gideon Kotey 

Executive Director, Kofi Capito

The Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) has cried over the poor services rendering by telcos a cross the country

The agency has noted with concern the negative effect on consumers by the telcos.

Spekaing at a press conference in Accra the Executive Director, Kofi Capito, said "We would like to call the attention of the minister of communications and the National Communications Auyhority( NCA) about the very poor services by the telcos in recent time".

He was of the view was view that with new technology available to Ghana, services by the telcos could have been improved by now but rather it is getting worse in the country. 

He said his agency has received numerous complaints from consumers of the telcos about the various challenges they are facing.

Some of the challenges facing by consumers he noted are the high cost of data, unsolicited promotions and  adverts, poor network among others.

The NCA used to conduct a very important test known as the QOS (quality of service parameters), they have four areas that went into this testing, speech quality or mean opinion Score -it is the measurement of voice quality that has been used in telephony for decades as a way of assessing the human user’s opinion of call quality. The test is widely to ensure quality voice transmission, test for quality issues and measures voice degradation and performance" Mr. Capito disclosed.

Measurement of the frequency of call congestion, Mr. Capito said  is termed as call congestion rate.

"Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH) Congestion Rate- It is the frequency of a consumer’s inability to access a provider’s network for other services such as transmission of data(texting). The measurement of the frequency is termed as Stand-Alone Dedicated Control Channel Congestion rate" he also stated.

He further noted that without QOS by the NCA, it will be difficult to know which of the telcos is giving bad services to the consumer.

He also said the CPA is aware of some telcos and some providers in the industry not being able to use or max-up the spectrum assigned to them whiles other telcos has maxed-up their spectrum and needs more spectrum for them to provide quality service to consumers.

He therefore called on the Communications Minister to take a look as to how to make it possible for the telcos that need more spectrum.

"There has  been an instance where a mother lost a daughter because of unsolicited promotions and adverts. She didn’t want to be bothered by these unsolicited messages at night and unfortunately it was her daughter who sent a text message in an emergency" he disclosed.

He also underscored the need for the the Controller and  Accountant General should also be told not to give out information of government workers to third parties about pay-day loans and bombarding them with household equipments for sale. It is illegal for any entity to give out information about any individual without their consent.

He also said it would appropriate if  the NCA takes action against the betting companies (NLA) with their unsolicited messages.

"As you recalled when the CPA encouraged Ghanaians to switch off their phones in protest some years ago, CPA will not hesitate to call on Ghanaian to sign a petition and embark on a boycott again' he indicated.

Source: www.truthtvnews.com

Editor: Nii Amon