By Nibal Zgheib, Senior Correspondent Egypt
In line with the National Telecom Regulatory Authority’s (NTRA) strategy to support the user rights and ensure providing high-quality services in Egypt’s market, NTRA issued its report on telecom user complaints for 2023.The report presents the most important indicators with respect to landline, mobile, fixed internet and mobile set complaints. It also presents the rate and time of response to such complaints post escalation to NTRA.
NTRA actually receives telecom-user complaints against operators via the call center on (155). In Addition, it has recently provided new e-channels to facilitate communication with users and develop non-traditional methods for receiving complaints; such as, My NTRA App, NTRA’s website, e-mail address as well as instant messaging apps like WhatsApp. Therefore, 322 033 complaints were received during 2023 as a result of such procedures. Operators’ response rate to complaints during the same period reached 90 per cent, whereas response time was 2.6 days in average. The following figures are presented being the most important information conveyed by the report:
322 033 complaints were escalated to NTRA against telecom operators including; 126 521 mobile complaints by 39 per cent, 100 654 fixed internet complaints by 32 per cent, 91 396 landline complaints by 28 per cemt and 3462 mobile set complaints by 1 per cent.
81 per cent of complaints were received via the call center (155), whereas 8 per cent of complaints was raised via WhatsApp and 7 per cent was registered on NTRA’s website. It is worth noting that 4 per cent of complaints was raised via My NTRA.
44 per cent of complaints was received in Greater Cairo and 27 per cent in Delta. Meanwhile, 18 per cent of complaints was raised by users in Upper Egypt, 8 per cent by users in Alexandria and 3 per cent by users in the Suez Canal cities.
Complaints regarding mobile set, mobile, fixed internet service and landline services are presented in details as follow:
First: Mobile set complaints
The overall number of complaints escalated by mobile set owners to NTRA against dealerships were 3462 during 2023. Meanwhile, the response rate to complaints reached 100 per cent with an average response time of 1.5 days. Most importantly, complaints were raised about problem re-occurrence by 49 per cent, poor technical support by 26 per cent and refusal to replace product by 25 per cent. On the other hand, the average time taken for resolving complaints per dealership was as follow; Safi by 0.58 days, Ro’ya by 0.76 days, Sky by 1.18 days, Raya by 2.17 days and I2 by 2.22 days.
Secondly, mobile-user complaints against operators:
Number of mobile complaints was 119 per 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 95 per cent with an average response time of 0.35 days
Vodafone: Number of complaints escalated against Vodafone was 119/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate and the average response time scored 96 per cent and 0.06 days respectively post escalation. Most of these complaints were about mobile wallets by 29 per cent, billing and credit by 20 per cent, service disconnection by 18 per cent. Mobile Number Portability Service (MNP) by 12 per cent, and subscription to service without notification by 6 per cent.
Orange: It was complained against by 163 complaints/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas response rate to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 95 per cent. Average response time had also been 0.75 days. Furthermore, most of these complaints were about billing and credit by 27 per cent, marketing offers by 18 per cent, MNP service by 17 per cent, service disconnection by 13 per cent and subscription to service without notification by 8 per cent.
Etisalat: Number of complaints raised against Etisalat was 80/ 100 thousand subscribers. The rate of response to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 94 per cent and the average response rate had been 0.15 days. Furthermore, most of these complaints were about MNP service by 29 per cent, service disconnection by 20 per cent, mobile wallets by 18 per cent, billing and credit by 16 per cent, and customer subscription to services without notification by 4 per cent.
Number of complaints raised against WE was 100/ 100 thousand subscribers. Meanwhile, the rate of response to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 97 per cent and the average time of response had been 0.45 days. Moreover, most of these complaints were about service disconnection by 35 per cent, MNP service by 20 per cent, billing and credit by 16 per cent, mobile wallets by 9 per cent and customer service by 9 per cent.
Thirdly, fixed internet-user complaints against operators:
Number of fixed internet complaints was 926/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 94 per cent with an average response time of 1.94 days.
Vodafone: Number of complaints escalated against Vodafone was 1179/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate and the average response time scored 98 per cent and 0.17 days respectively post escalation. Most of these complaints were about service quality by 39 per cent, billing and credit service by 18 per cent, inability to cancel subscription by 14 per cent, line reserved without notification by 11 per cent, and customer service by 7 per cent.
Orange: It was complained against by 2197 complaints/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas response rate to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 99 per cent. Average response time had also been 0.17 days. Furthermore, most of these complaints were about service quality by 46 per cent, billing and credit by 25 per cent, inability to cancel subscription by 14 per cent, line reserved without notification by 6 per cent and marketing offers by 3 per cent.
Etisalat: Number of complaints raised against Etisalat was 1374/ 100 thousand subscribers. The rate of response to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 99 per cent and the average response rate had been 0.09 days. Furthermore, most of these complaints were about service quality by 45 per cent, billing and credit by 18 per cent, inability to cancel subscription by 9 per cent, line reserved without notification by 8 per cent, and being previously registered to service under another name by 7 per cent.
Number of complaints raised against WE was 808/ 100 thousand subscribers. Meanwhile, the rate of response to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 93 per cent and the average time of response had been 2.65 days. Moreover, most of these complaints were about service quality by 63 per cent, billing and credit by 17 per cent, line reserved without notification by 10 per cent, customer service by 6 per cent, as well as inability to cancel subscription by 1 per cent.
Fourthly: Landline- user complaints:
Landline complaints scored a number of 733 / 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate of complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 77 per cent and the average response time had been 3.8 days. Landline complaints were most importantly about breakdowns by 75 per cent, service quality by 13 per cent, delayed activation of service by 7 per cent, and customer service as well as billing and credit service by 2 per cent each. Furthermore, complaints were geographically distributed as follow: 53 per cent in Greater Cairo, 24 per cent in Delta, 15 per cent in Upper Egypt, 6 per cent in Alexandria and 2 per cent in the Suez Canal area.
Amounts refunded to eligible users
A total number of EGP 4.3 million were refunded to eligible users by operators during 2023, after the eligibility of such users to receive reparations had been proven by NTRA. The majority of amounts refunded were for mobile wallet complaints by 77 per cent.
Measures taken by NTRA to uphold user rights after their complaints are monitored:
Fines of EGP 2.3 million were imposed on mobile operators during 2023
2.3 million pound-fines were imposed by NTRA on mobile operators during 2023 for trespassing the standards of response to mobile users’ complaints.
Violations to user-complaint standards were reduced by 48 per cent during 2023
Seamless coordination with operators, with respect to receiving and responding to complaints, resulted in their compliance with the criteria of receiving and resolving complaints, consequently leading to a decrease in violations by 48 per cent during 2023 in comparison to 2022.
*155# unified code used for 79 million times to inquire about, cancel entertainment services
Since the service was launched in January 2021, the free unified code (*155#) was used for 79 million times to inquire about or cancel entertainment services such as, songs, news, games, etc. and for about 36 million times in 2023. It’s worth noting that NTRA previously launched the unified code to reduce unfavorable practices like subscription to services without notifying customers or against their will.
Users changed fixed internet providers for 3.5 million times since rules of shifting fixed internet providers were applied
NTRA issued regulations to facilitate the process of shifting fixed internet providers, while transactions of subscription cancellation and subscription have come up to 1.2 million and 2.3 million respectively. This actually contributed to reducing the number of complaints against fixed internet providers by 85 per cent.
2 million transactions for Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
NTRA established rules to facilitate MNP process by issuing regulations to ease up MNP during 24 hours. The number of users who utilized MNP service reached 800 thousand during 2023, to form a total number of 2 million, with a 35 per cent-increase than 2022.
