Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 October 2004
28 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he has considered issuing political directive in relation to competition and the costs of telephone directory inquiries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25669/04]
View answerAs part of its statutory functions under the Communications Regulation Act 2002 and the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Universal Service and Users' Rights) Regulations, SI 308 of 2003. The Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg, is required to ensure that transparent and up to date information on applicable prices and tariffs is available to end-users in respect of access to and use of publicly available electronic communications services, including directory inquiry services. I have no function in the matter.
However, the Deputy may be interested to learn that following a survey that indicated a low awareness of the costs of using directory inquiry services among residential consumers in January 2004, ComReg issued a decision notice on access to tariff information on directory inquiry services on 12 August 2004 following a public consultation process. The measures in this decision notice provide for greater transparency and assistance to consumers in exercising informed choices in their use of directory enquiry services. In order to allow for necessary changes to service delivery processes the decision notice came into effect on 1 October 2004.
The decision notice contains three directives which provide as follows: when advertising or promoting its service a directory inquiry service provider shall indicate the applicable charges; the directory inquiry service provider shall make available printed tariff information in response to requests from consumers; and a directory inquiry service provider shall provide tariff information when it offers call completion services.
