Steady progress
The communications watchdog Ofcom has published its fifth annual Consumer Experience Report, which claims to offer a snapshot of how the UK communications market has evolved in the past five years.
Some of the changes highlighted are:
- The (presumably average) cost of calling from a mobile phone has fallen from 15.1p per minute to 8.8p
- The number of unbundled fixed broadband lines has increased from 123,000 to 7.23 million
The report reveals that complaints are falling, but slowly, having dropped by 20 percent in four years. Of course the fall could just as easily be due to people not believing Ofcom will act on them as any indication that things are getting better. Additionally the report concludes competition is improving, but given Ofcom's remit it was unlikely to conclude otherwise.
Here are the main sources of complaints to Ofcom:
- Switching processes - Despite it being, in theory, easier than ever to switch communications suppliers, we're doing so less often
- Broadband speeds - This is a rapidly growing source of complaints, primarily around misleading advertising
- Customer service - Bad complaints handling
- Silent calls - Complaints about automated marketing calls and/or auto-diallers are rapidly increasing. Ofcom's answer is to rule that from February 2011 "...companies will no longer be able to call consumers without the guaranteed presence of a live operator more than once a day."
- Landline mis-selling - Slamming (your phone account being charged without your consent) is still a big issue, but Ofcom reckons innocent mistakes are a major factor.
You can access the full, very long, report here.
