Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 January 2013
170. Deputy Seán Kyne asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is working with, or will consider working with, the Communications Regulator and other bodies such as the national consumer agency to ensure that a transparent process exists for citizens to voice concerns and complaints in relation to broadband issues, in particular broadband introduced as part of previous State funded or supported programmes. [3465/13]
View answerThe Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) provides a complaints handling process for users of electronic communications services in accordance with its objectives set out in section 12 of the Communications Regulation Act 2002. In implementing this obligation ComReg seeks to provide users with sufficient information to deal with their service providers effectively and to ensure that operators have adequate procedures in place to address customer issues.
ComReg can act on a consumer complaint provided the consumer has contacted their operator and allowed 10 working days for resolution of the issue. Broadband customers who wish to express concerns or pursue complaints regarding broadband services can contact ComReg by email at Businessconsumers@comreg.ie or call 1890 200035 for business customers or Consumerline@comreg.ie or 1890 229668 for other users.
In cases where a complaint is specific to the quality of services provided under the National Broadband Scheme (NBS), which was established with assistance from State funding, consumers are referred to my Department which has a well-established monitoring arrangements in place to ensure that the scheme delivers a minimum specified service or better to all users. Under the NBS contract, specific service level agreement (SLA) standards are in place, which define the service and support levels to be provided by “3” to NBS subscribers.
Any NBS customer experiencing problems with the NBS service can contact 3’s customer care centre 24 hours a day 7 days a week by phone at 1913 (free of charge) or via email to nbssupport@three.ie . A team of field engineers has been established to address NBS specific maintenance issues at customers’ premises.
My Department has a role where customers have fully utilised the established complaints process and consider that their complaint has not been resolved. My officials operate a dedicated NBS mailbox, which NBS customers can contact by email at nationalbroadbandscheme@dcenr.gov.ie, with any comments or complaints they may have about their NBS service.
