European operators to be fined for offering low grade internet connection

Do consumer protection measures vis-à-vis their broadband providers have to be beefed-up? The European Parliament will discuss that question – alongside the hot topic ‘net neutrality’ - on April 3, during the first reading of the proposed new regulation ‘Laying down measures concerning the single market for electronic communications to achieve a connected continent’. But the example of the Croatian regulatory authority HAKOM shows, regulators could take a bite earlier. Croatian fixed network providers will be fined for each day they make customers wait unnecessarily when they want to switch provider.

In mid March, HAKOM announced the entering into force of its ‘Ordinance on Amendments on the Manner and Conditions for the Provision of Electronic Communication Networks’. The ordinance is complementing the Croatian Electronic Communications Act and is intended to streamline complaint procedures where customers find their operators not delivering minimum agreed internet access speed. Users now only have to make three measurements - using the regulators HAKOMetar - before they can file a complaint with their provider for failure of service.

HAKOMetar measurements, daily fines for delays

Contrary to an earlier version of the regulation, users now will not need to measure between 7pm and 11pm, but could test their connection all day or night. The updated HAKOMetar also makes it easy to pass on the proof to the network operator, as “it enables a direct sending of complaints to the operator upon the completion of the measurement procedure.”

Complaints can escalated from a simple complaint to the customer service, and from there to the Consumer Complaint Commission and finally, to HAKOM, provided the issue is not resolved in a timely fashion. Deadlines have been set for the different procedures, including the process for switching to another fixed electronic communications network.

“If the new operator fails to realize the requested service, it must, on the basis of the end user’s written request, pay to the end user a penalty fee for delay in the amount of fifty (50) kuna [6.50 Euros] for each day of the delay, until the service realisation day or the contract termination day.” Additional modifications oblige operators to provide notifications about the consumption of services and assure users a right to get a refund for unspent connection bandwidth of prepaid services.

Measuring up

To empower user complaints and get a look on the status quo of broadband services and false promises about the service levels, many regulatory authorities in Europe now offer measurement tools like the HAKOMetar. Austria, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Spain and Poland all operate permanent platforms according to an overview published last week by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communication (BEREC).

BEREC currently is seeking comments on its report on ‘Monitoring quality of Internet access services in the context of net neutrality’. The report recommends to start evolving towards a potential uniform and even joint monitoring system, on a voluntary basis. Monitoring quality of internet access services in the context of net neutrality was important, the report reads, to improve the regulators’ capacity to make regulatory assessments of potential degradations and it also allows end users to make their choice as customers in a competitive market.

Remedies, such as the one provided by Croatia’s HAKOM, seem to push that development a somewhat further, while remaining in line with existing EU law.

Tame service providers?

According to the Universal Service Directive – part of the Telecommunication Framework Regulation of the European Union – regulators are free to fine service providers already, Andreas Neumann, General manager of the Institute for the law of network industries, information and communications technology (IRNIK) told us.

According to the relevant provision, "member states shall ensure that adequate sanctions on undertakings are provided for, including an obligation to compensate subscribers in case of delay in porting or abuse of porting by them or on their behalf."

“In Germany the concept has been transposed through a reduction of the subscriber fee by 50 percent,” Neumann explains. Transposition in other member states has so far not been a topic in relevant reports by BEREC, Neumann said. Member states quite obviously can exercise a certain degree of flexibility. When failing to enable number portability, sanctions against operators are obligatory, the Bonn-based lawyer said.

When the ‘Connect Europe’-regulation will be discussed in the European plenary, portability could also be extended to email and other identifiers, and some members of parliament get they way, BEREC's role in setting guidelines will be strengthened. The potability measure shall be retained in the more flexible Universal Services Directive, adding an obligatory sanction for the failure of operators to duly inform their customers about switching procedures. A “rather soft enhancement,” Neumann said.

Given that even current tools have so far only been used cautiously, stricter legislation might not be effective. Better enforcement might in turn be something to address first.