Competition Council says unsubscribing from telecom services cumbersome

The procedure to unsubscribe from telecommunication services is cumbersome, beginning with the provider stage up until the implementation of the customer's request, the Competition Council said in a report. 

"The entire unsubscribing process is cumbersome, beginning with the initial stage of contacting the provider to notify him of the decision to unsubscribe until the customer's application is implemented. (...) The high concentration for the first three telecom providers highlights the oligopolistic nature of the markets: 80 pct for television, 83 pct for fixed internet services and 94.5 pct for landline telephony," the report said. 

The document suggests that in future cases referred to the attention of the competition watchdog, the possibility should exist for a segmented examination of the services provided by the companies involved, in order to determine the position each of them holds for each of the single and combined service types and identify the real options the customers have. 

According to the National Communications Administration and Regulation Authority - ANCOM, at the end of 2016 the number of multiple service users had increased by half a million compared to the end of 2014, with the residential component (individuals) making the most substantial contribution to this growth. 

"The customers' preference for sophistication is also noticeable, as the positive development is also due to the increase in the number of customers who use combinations of at least three services. Unlike the purchase / sale of single services, the purchase of multiple services from the same operator and the sale of several services to the same customer, respectively, benefit both the customer and service providers, which explains customer preference for grouped services (multiple individual / service package) and the providers' concern for promoting such offers and making them available to customers," the Competition Council reports. 

In the case of subscribers, the said institution shows, the benefits consist of the single tariff that is lower than the sum of the cumulative tariffs for services acquired from two or several providers, other benefits / bonuses, the interaction with a single operator, a single invoice. 

"For the providers, the benefits consist of scale and scope savings, the sped-up recovery of investments with the common infrastructure, higher and constant revenues. For the customer, there is also a downside to buying grouped services, as this results in a mobility restriction," the cited source mentions.AGERPRES .