Recently the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR), in Jamaica, published a 104 page paper titled "Quality of Service Standards and Consumer Protection Guidelines for the Telecommunications Sector". It is constitutes a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking".
The Abstract, dated November 10, 2014 states "In a perfectly competitive market in which consumers are fully informed about the characteristics and reliability of all products, no regulation of quality is required as each person is able to make an optimal choice given the range of services and relative prices. However, it is common knowledge that markets often fail to meet these perfectly competitive conditions. Consumers will therefore benefit when quality standards are regulated and Licensees’ performances on quality of service indicators are established and published." It goes further to state "The proposals in this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) cover quality standards for fixed telephony, mobile telephony and internet access as well as procedures for handling of consumer complaints. It also includes a General Consumer Code of Practice, which sets out consumer protection guidelines for the telecommunications sector".
The general public is now invited to review the document, posted on the OUR's website [link], and provide feedback on the specific proposals.
