Telecoms have been asked to provide solutions after poor reception was identified as the No. 1 source of consumer complaints that the National Communications Commission (NCC) received in the first quarter this year.
From January to March, the commission received 1,234 complaints related to telecom service, down from 1,281 during the same quarter last year, NCC statistics show.
However, 771 of the complaints in the first quarter were related to reception of telecom services, with 64.59 percent being about poor reception that users experienced at home or at work.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, changes in telecom service contracts and subscriber service were identified as the second and third-biggest sources of complaints, accounting for 11 percent and 8 percent respectively, the NCC said.
The three telecoms that received the most complaints were Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Star and Taiwan Mobile, with 32.41 percent, 19.53 percent and 18.48 percent of the complaints.
Consumers who complained about poor indoor reception often asked telecoms to reduce their monthly service fees or improve the reception immediately, the commission said, adding that some demanded that their service contracts be terminated.
The commission offered two possible explanations for poor indoor reception.
“Transmission of electromagnetic waves could be hindered by buildings or topography, depending on where base stations were installed,” it said.
Another reason might be that a telecom removed a base station after residents in the area complained about it, but failed to find a different location nearby to reinstall it, it said.
“We have asked telecoms to conduct tests at locations where a majority of complaints took place and offer solutions accordingly,” the NCC said. “If consumers complain about poor reception, telecoms are advised to give consumers a rebate or allow them to terminate service contracts early while they find ways to address the problem, such as quickly installing a new base station.”
Telecoms should inform consumers that they have a seven-day free trial period for any telecom service they plan to subscribe to, the commission said.
Telecoms are obligated to disclose their service coverage areas to consumers, it said, adding that such information should be available in their retail stores and on their Web sites.
Telecoms must also disclose exactly what their service entails based on the “Telecommunication Service Quality Items and Formats,” which was published on April 8 last year, the NCC said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
RSS