Thailand - protecting consumers

Strengthening network of consumers the top priority

In an environment in which telephone subscribers are increasingly bombarded with commercial and other material, their interests can best be protected by the creation of a strong telecom consumer network. So says the head of the Consumer Institute of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Institute director Prawit Leesatapornwongsa, 43, has first-hand experience of telecom consumer problems. Recently, while being interviewed for The Nation, he was interrupted by a call on his mobile phone.

After listening to the caller for a while, he said in a calm tone: "I have a lot of them already."

Then he ended the call. It was easy to guess it had come from a telemarketer offering to sell him a product.

"I don't know where these people got my phone numbers or how they know I am a doctor," he said.

The institute deals mainly with protection of personal information provided by consumers to telecom operators. He said unsolicited telemarketers might not have obtained his phone number from his mobile-phone operator.

"Don't forget that our personal information is exposed to many people, and it's hard to produce valid proof of who leaked that information," Prawit said.

The NTC set up the institute late last year to oversee three major tasks: handle complaints, work out solutions and collect complaints so that the NTC can develop new regulations to protect consumers. Prawit is its first director.

He said the top priority was strengthening a consumer network across the Kingdom. This, he believes, is the most effective consumer-protection measure. He also wants people to feel they are the owners of the Consumer Institute.

The institute is planning to develop a telecom consumer-protection network covering 26 provinces as part of its consumer-protection mission. Consumers will be able to file complaints with network representatives in their provinces. The network will coordinate with the institute to solve problems and will promote awareness of consumer rights.

"The consumer network has been around for a while, but it has focused on other issues, so we've asked it to expand to cover telecom services," he said.

The Telecom Business Act stipulates that telecom consumers are entitled to file complaints with the NTC about poor telecom services. They can ask for details of their service usage from their telecom operators, and their personal information is protected by law.

About 50 million mobile phones are now in use in Thailand, and there are more than 10 million fixed-line telephones.

Among the top complaints over the past few months have been dropped calls, overcharging, message spam, misleading advertising and phone tapping. Consumers with complaints can begin by calling their telecom operators. If the situation does not improve, they can turn to the institute.

"If consumers are still not satisfied with the result, we'll host a meeting with the related parties to solve the problem. But we don't accept complaints about handsets. We're interested only in telecom services, not hardware," he said.

Another regular complaint concerns the use of phone numbers without caller identification. In some cases, these anonymous callers offer products for sale, and others are interested only in sexual harassment.

"If a company wants to sell products, why does it have to conceal the phone number? Why not reveal yourself?" he asked.

The NTC has recently instructed the institute to draw up an action plan to prevent calls from phone numbers without caller ID. One possible measure is for the institute to create a list of mobile-phone users who do not want to receive calls from telemarketers. Such subscribers would be able to register their phone numbers with the institute, and telemarketers would be obliged to check the list before launching any campaigns. They would face legal action if they contacted anyone on the list.

Prawit said most people filing telecom-service complaints were happy once a solution was found. Although telecom operators are willing to collaborate with the NTC to solve problems, they consistently begin by coming up with a complicated defence of their position.

The cellular operators have their own customer-complaint units that receive complaints through many channels. Total Access Communication (DTAC), for example, sorts complaints into different categories and directs them to the relevant departments, such as network-down or dropped-call complaints being directed to its technology group and promotion-related complaints to its commercial group.

Sometimes, DTAC's top executives, including the CEO, will respond to customers by fax, letter or e-mail.

What Prawit is concerned about is that most consumers only want to learn of their rights after they have a complaint.

When the institute hosts campaign activities to educate people on their rights, only complaint-affected consumers participate.

When problems arise, consumers should make complaints rather than keep quiet, he said. Moreover, consumers should keep all information relevant to their contracts with phone-service operators.

"Your complaints will help us learn about problems [that exist in the system], and we can process this input into creating protection policies. Remember that one complaint to the authorities is better than complaining 1,000 times to yourself at home," he said.