Press Release
OFTA Announces Quality of Service (QoS) Information Framework to Help Consumers Make Informed Choices

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) today (31 January 2005) announced a framework under which quality of service (QoS) information on residential broadband Internet service will be available to consumers for making informed choices.

"All sectors of the telecommunications industry in Hong Kong have been liberalised and open to competition. Consumers can now enjoy a wide range of innovative services at competitive prices. In order to ensure consumers would gain full benefits of the competition, we need to keep them adequately informed about the QoS of different service providers in the market so that they can make an informed choice," a spokesperson from OFTA said.

"The framework serves to provide a systematic mechanism for providing the public with information on the non-price aspects of residential broadband Internet services. No minimum service standards will be set for service providers. In a competitive market, the service standards should be determined by the market. Transparency will also help the Internet service providers (ISPs) to reduce misunderstanding with customers and to manage customer expectations. Moreover, we believe the availability of the information will help reduce consumer complaints," the spokesperson explained.

Ten indicators under three types of information will be generated from the framework for public information. The three types of information include: (I) technical performance, such as download and upload time of the service providers; (II) service information, such as helpline numbers and information on billing and service termination; and (III) pledges and actual performance statistics on complaint handling time and enquiry call answering time. It is expected the first batch of QoS information will be available on OFTA's website for public information in August this year. A list of the ten indicators is at Annex (i) and (ii).

"The scheme will be applied on a mandatory basis on the top four residential broadband service providers in terms of number of subscribers (namely, in alphabetical order, Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited, Hutchison Global Communications Limited, i-Cable WebServe Limited and PCCW IMS Limited), in view of the fact that these top four service providers have accounted for over 95% of the total market shares. OFTA welcomes voluntary participation from other residential broadband service providers as well as business broadband service providers. OFTA would discuss with any ISP who volunteers to implement QoS on business broadband service," the spokesperson continued.

OFTA will commission an independent institution to measure the technical performance of the top four service providers. The service providers do not need to expend resources in the measurement exercise. To prioritise resources, the technical performance of only the top four service providers will be measured at this initial stage.

The TA Statement with details of the information to be made available to the public as well as the implementation details can be downloaded from OFTA's website at http://www.ofta.gov.hk/.

Background

Complaint statistics collected by OFTA in the past years indicate that there has been an upward trend in the number of consumer complaints related to public telecommunications services. The upward trend can be attributed to a number of factors, including rapid increase in broadband penetration rate in the mass consumer market as well as aggressive marketing and sales tactics. However, a significant number of the complaints are attributable to the lower-than-expected or misunderstanding of the QoS pledges of service providers. To ensure that consumers could make better-informed purchasing decisions, the TA considers that there is a need to implement a framework for providing QoS information on the non-price aspects of the various competitive services on offer in the market.

To provide an opportunity for service providers, industry associations and consumer interest groups to discuss the proposal of implementing the QoS framework for public telecommunications service, OFTA organised an industry forum in September 2003 during which the TA presented his proposal. A Working Group with the participation of various stakeholders were then formed to help OFTA identify the key performance indicators and work out how these indicators were defined, measured and reported.

After gathering valuable inputs from the industry and consumer interest groups, OFTA launched in July 2004 a public consultation exercise to invite views on the framework for providing QoS information of different service providers in the market. Thirteen submissions were received. The QoS framework announced today took into account views expressed during the consultation exercise to ensure that the approach would be conducive to the healthy developments of the industry as well as enhancing consumer interests in a proactive manner.

Office of the Telecommunications Authority
31 January 2005