Wanted: A Better Way to Report Poor Service by the Telcos to the NTC

By Rico, 9:09 am Wed Jul 29 2009 - Editorial, Featured - What Do You Think?

So after reporting about the newest NTC memo prescribing minimum failure rates to telcos, reader jpbl1976 reported:

I’ll be surprised if the telcos ever manage this. As I was typing this comment, I tried using my SMART mobile to call my landline and got a connection failure. This happens 4 out of 10 times for me and I can literally see a SMART cellsite outside my window. It’s ridiculous. The NTC should get SMART and Globe to improve their drop or failed-to-connect calls rate to just 10% first before they release a memo mandating a 4% rate, which is worse than a pipe dream. The NTC is a joke. It has never had any teeth so what’s the point of even coming up with a memo they can’t enforce? They’re doing this to tick boxes so their civil servants can collect their GSIS pensions when the time comes. What’s needed is more competition — and no, Sun doesn’t count because its service is even crappier than the other two’s.

I have no reason to doubt jpbl’s word—especially since my own Smart Buddy prepaid account failed to connect a call ten straight times one afternoon. But how do you provide definitive proof of poor service by telcos?

Do you actually have to take a video of yourself trying to call people? Maybe such a video requires an 360 panning shot to establish your location, then focus on the phone to show what’s happening while you’re trying to connect. A video of my phone failing to connect a call ten times is much more convincing than me just writing about it here. And how can you actually record evidence of the time-old problem of disappearing load? It’s not like your remaining balance is prominently displayed on your phone, and it’s very impractical to record yourself whenever you send a text or make a call.

Before we can start seriously confronting local telcos over their service, perhaps we should stop sharing anecdotes, and start compiling definitive evidence. It’s up to us, the consumers to figure this out, especially since at least one telco has refused to open up their records to public scrutiny—a stance makes sense from a business point of view.

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