Fewer complaints on broadband migration
Friday 15 February 2008
A year ago Ofcom introduced a rule (known as General Condition 22), set up to make the migration between broadband providers easier and fuss free. One of the biggest changes pushed along by the new rule was that it would help prevent ISPs from holding onto customers by failing to provide them with their all-important MAC code.
Twelve months later Ofcom has reported a dramatic fall in the number of complaints submitted to them with regards to broadband migration, with figures dropping from 825 in March 2007 to 517 in January 2008.
Despite promising stats however, Ofcom has expressed concern that the rate of improvement has not been maintained in recent months and has announced that it is to extend the General Condition enforcement. The statement concluded:
"Ensuring that consumers are able to switch their broadband supplier quickly, easily and with minimal service disruption remains a priority for Ofcom. We have therefore decided to extend the GC22 enforcement programme for a further six months. Industry players should now expect that Ofcom may proceed directly to individual notifications of contravention without any further warnings where our investigation of an ISP demonstrates sufficient evidence of contravention of GC22."
Possibly showing struggles to keep up with the fast-moving industry, there is now also concern that unbundled packages, an increasingly popular choice for broadband customers are not covered by General Condition 22. Ofcom state that they are working towards improving this problem.
