By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

REGULATORS have held firm over plans to slash the time for communications industry operators to resolve customer complaints, wrongful disconnections and new serve installation despite industry push back.

The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), unveiling the results and decision from sector consultation on reforms to the Consumer Protection Regulations, stuck to its originally proposed one-third cut to the time operators have to resolve customer complaints from 30 days to 20 days.

It has also remained true to its original stance to cut the time required to connect new subscribers, and activate new services, while also holding to a 50 percent reduction in the time to reverse wrongful disconnections from four hours to two hours despite opposition from the likes of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC).

“BTC stated that URCA did not provide supporting evidence or analysis to support reducing the complaint resolution timeframe from 30 business days to 20 business days, adding that it was simply an arbitrary reduction,” URCA said of the carrier’s feedback.

“BTC considered the 20-business-day limit... to be part of the overall complaint maximum 30 business day process, and therefore the two time-frame elements could not be compared. Additional time can be required to allow for the consumer to provide further input into the process and/or to agree

to a resolution, as contemplated in [other] provisions. “BTC added that while it strives to resolve consumer complaints as quickly as possible and well within the 30 business day cap in most cases, BTC claimed that the resolution of consumer complaints is not under its control because the complainant also dictates how long it takes to reach a resolution. Therefore, BTC concluded that the 30-business-day timeframe should remain.”

URCA, though, rejected this argument on the basis that it was inconsistent with international benchmarks and standards on resolving communications industry complaints. “As shown, the 30 business day target gives The Bahamas the longest timeframe allowed for complaint resolution when compared with the other countries used in the benchmark,” the communications regulator added.

“This is consistent with URCA’s view that the current 30 business day timeframe is excessively long. Therefore, URCA maintains that the revision to 20 business days is more proportionate and in line with international targets.

“URCA notes that the 20 business day target is still on the higher end of consumer complaint resolution timeframes when compared to other jurisdictions, but considers the new target to strike a reasonable balance between improving complaint resolution times while placing practical expectations on service providers,” it continued.

“URCA disagrees with BTC’s statement that consumer complaint resolution is not under BTC’s con- trol. URCA recognises that there are cases where the complaint resolution process may be delayed because of a customer. However, this should be documented by BTC.”

URCA also held to its proposed revision requiring communications industry operators to “escalate” consumer complaints to it if they remain unresolved after 20 days. And it also rejected BTC arguments against lowering customer reconnection times from four working hours to two when they are cut-off from services by mistake.

“BTC disagreed with the proposed change, stating that while its goal is to reconnect customers within four hours or less, some accounts require proper reconciliation and verification before the account is reconnected which may take more than two hours,” URCA said of the carrier’s feedback.

“Once it is verified that a wrongful disconnection has occurred, it is not clear what further reconciliation and verification is needed before a customer is reconnected. BTC did not provide examples or a detailed explanation to supports its argument.

“Given that the service provider wrongfully disconnected the customer, the time before reconnection should be as short as possible to minimise harmful effects on the consumer. Therefore, URCA affirms that the target reconnection for a wrongful disconnection will be reduced from four working hours to two working hours.”

URCA is also mandating that carriers take less time to activate new services/subscribers once they are approved even though BTC argued that it is inhibited