TRCSL should focus on weightier complaints

Oral submissions from the public on matters related to telecommunication will be entertained shortly by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) with the main focus on improvement of subscriber bills and billing-related disputes, according to a news item we published yesterday.

This on the face of it appears to be a good move by the TRCSL to allow the subscribers of fixed access telephones to air their grievances and views on the condition of telecommunication in Sri Lanka. Of over 450 petitioners who have sent in written submissions, only about 40 will be able to give oral submissions, we are told.

Only 450 complaints! What a surprise! One would have thought that everyone who had a phone had a complaint to make to the Commission. Or, perhaps, their repeated complaints having fallen on deaf ears, they are now disillusioned and do not want to waste their time and energy by petitioning the Commission.

One is not being cynical if one asks whether TRCSL is trying to prove its existence by means of this so-called Public Hearing where it is going to sort out matters that are relatively innocuous as opposed to the major issues in telecommunication that warrant its urgent attention.

Disputes over bloated bills are by no means frivolous. Of course, they are so serious as to be settled forthwith. There have been numerous complaints of subscribers being charged for calls especially IDD ones which they never made. And Telecom subscribers are kept in the dark as to what calls they are paying for because they are not issued with detailed bills indicating each and every call that has been made and the corresponding time duration.

Issuance of detailed bills is however adhered to by other companies.

These are however matters that a subscriber should be able to take up with regional level officials of telecommunication companies without undergoing the hassle of petitioning the TRCSL direct. Or is one to gather from this public hearing exercise that those at regional levels drawing fat salaries are a set of numskulls incapable of solving at least these disputes? Otherwise why should the TRCSL be encumbered with this unwanted task?

There are matters that the TRCSL has to figure on if its asseverated objective of improving telecommunication is to materialise.

The call charges in Sri Lanka remain very high. The monthly rental exorbitant call charges, the defence levy and the GST on top of all that have, it is no exaggeration,made many a subscriber regret having ever got a telephone installed.

Installation charges too remain high and there is still much to be desired from the service the telephone companies provide. Whenever a telephone goes out of order, it is a long wait for the subscriber before it repaired.

A company whose advent was heralded by costly laser demonstrations and gifts showered on VIPs, it is said, has yet to give the much awaited connections to thousands who advanced money many moons ago.

Call charges at public booths have risen to the point where they are no longer attractive to the public. At the so-called telecommunication centres that have mushroomed countrywide, only God knows the basis on which customers are charged for calls. A fixed rate for faxes at these places has yet to be determined by the authorities. There are places where to fax a single sheet of paper, a customer has to pay as much as Rs. 50.00 or more.

Why has the TRCSL remained so silent on these matters? It could not have been unaware of these corrupt practices the unscrupulous disport themselves in at the expense of the public.

In a competitive market, there is said to be consumer sovereignty as he has the right to choose and bargain. But, today in Sri Lanka although new competitors have entered the market, the consumer continues to suffer without much choice.

The plight of those using cellular phone is greater.

In terms of exorbitant call charges rentals and the like, we have perhaps beaten some developed countries. When the charges were jacked up a few months ago, it was enunciated that the increase will be coupled with improvements to the service.

But today people have ended up paying more for the same poor service.

Needless to say that development of telecommunication is a prerequisite for economic development. It is also essential for the development in other spheres of society.

The TRCSL has to contemplate mainly on the telecommunication development and related issues at the national level. Other matters such as the one at issue should be handled by those whom subscribers have easy access to. Or the Commission should step in, if necessary, to make it possible for the people to take recourse to the law of the land over these disputes.