For a number of times in the meetings of Telecommunications Users and Consumers Advisory Committee (UCAC), the quality of service (QOS) of information service providers (ISP) were discussed. Ad hoc discussions have lasted for several years, but concrete methods have not yet been found to establish a system as such. Recently, it was suggested by some members that a seminar focusing on QOS issues should be organised as soon as possible.

While quality management (through using various tools such as ISO 9000, Q Mark, etc.) has been a hot topic and popular management medicine in many sectors of the economy, it must be quite odd to many people that there are no quality management tools in the IT/telecom. sector.  While consumers can assess the quality of a hotel and restaurant in Hong Kong by seeing or asking the number of stars it has, there is no similar way to find out for ISPs and telecom. service providers.

Users of Internet services want to have some basis on which they can choose their ISPs. Experiences have told them that messages and promises from ISPs are not trustworthy; moreover, problems come  one after another --transmission speeds slower than promised, frequent line disconnections, overcharged bills, hotline telephones are all busy.....to name just a few. Also, in the absence of objective quality indicators (or called performance pledges), consumers do not know whether and to whom they should make complaints when they experience dissatisfaction.

A reason for not installing a quality management system is that IT/telecom. services, and hence their quality indicators, are much more complicated than those in other sectors. Items (which can be further broken down into sub-items) to be assessed seem to be too many; and many of these items are inter-related. Moreover, these items are currently managed by different government and non-government organs (e.g. OFTA, Consumer Council, TELA).

These items include:
-quality of nformation contents
-quality of message conveyance
-consumer choices
-after sales service
-integrity of the service providers

Another reason for not having such system is a simple statement: let the market decide (meaning that after learning from good and bad experiences for a few times, every consumer can find his or her right service provider).

After seeing a drastic increase in the number of consumer complaints, a  consultation process concerning metering and billing of telecom. services, was recently (June 2000) conducted by the Office of the Telecom. Authority (OFTA). In its submission,  the Hong Kong Consumer Council re-iterated the need for a system to assess QOS of telecom. service providers.

More and more third generation (3G) mobile services and broadband services will emerge in the near future. As they will be more complex than the current telecom. services, more confusion (and complaints) would be generated if consumers are not satisfied with ways to determine, monitor, assess and ensure good quality of service.

The following are therefore some key questions to ask:

-does the IT/telecom sector urgently need a quality management system?

-would an objective way be better, based on measurable quality indictors/performance pledges?

-would an subjective way be better, based on an overall impression on quality?

-who could be the best organ to run such system--a Government, industry or independent body?
 

If you have answers to them, or some views to share on how to improve the current situation, please send an email to me: clam@kamching.com or to the secretary of OFTA's UCAC: iyyho@ofta.gov.hk
 

Dr Charles Lam
September 2000