OzHub, the Macquarie Telecom-led cloud computing alliance, has come down firmly on the side of Optus over the copyright controversy surrounding Optus TV Now, warning that any moves to change the law "risk branding Australia a global luddite state."
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, John Pinnock, has voiced concerned about the growing number of complaints from Internet customers who have had their contracts changed without their agreement. His comments come just days after the ACCC warned broadband ISPs about making misleading statements on service speeds.
"Most ISPs require customers to sign fixed-term contracts before they can receive a service," Pinnock said "Customers are telling us that often, after a short period of the contract has elapsed, they have received notification from their provider that the price of their plan will increase or that the speed or usage limits will be reduced."
"For example, an internet service provider may significantly lower the usage limits of its broadband plans and then seek to charge customers an early termination fee if they wish to cancel," Pinnock said.
According to the industry Consumer Contracts Code, which was developed with input from the service providers, a fixed-term contract may only be varied without the customer's consent on condition that: the customer is given 21 days written notice of the change; and the customer is given a further 21 days to cancel without penalty.
The Ombudsman added that if a customer wanted to leave a contract where the terms and conditions had been varied without their consent, and to their detriment, the ISP could only recover: any usage, installation and access charges outstanding at the date the contract ended; and the costs of any equipment associated with the contract only if the customer could use the equipment with another service provider.
All internet service providers are required by law to be members of the TIO scheme.
David Frost
| SYDNEY– February 9, 2012. Gigamon®, the world leader in Traffic Visibility Fabric solutions, announced that it has expanded the breadth and s…
How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business
Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more
Try an easy-to-use set of web-enabled
tools for business-class productivity services. Office 365 provides
anywhere-access to email, important documents, contacts, and calendars
on almost any device.
