The session will be hosted at the Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, according to the NTC's homepage.

The National Telecommunications Commission's draft rules are designed to protect customers of its licensees and the private operators of concessions from TOT Plc and CAT Telecom Plc.

The highlight of the regulations is the waiving of service charges during any downtime caused by a technical glitch that inconveniences subscribers, unless the service-provider can prove that the problem does not originate from its system. Service-providers must also act quickly to solve the problem.

Service providers are not allowed to force their prepaid customers to use up their telephone cards within a fixed validity period.

Cellular operators stand to lose as their prepaid customers can take their time using up the entire value of their refill card.

The NTC will determine the maximum fees and rates that can be charged on all telecom services, and all subscribers to the same service must come under the same tariff.

Subscribers can request information on their service use from their providers if they find that their bill is unusually high or over maximum rates.

If service-providers charge more than has actually been used, they must refund the excess charges, plus interest, to customers.

Service-providers also have to draw up guidelines for customer service, such as how customers can lodge complaints about services and how problems will be processed. The guidelines must be distributed to all customers.

Telecoms must file proposed tariff changes to the NTC 14 days in advance.

The NTC has gone through several drafts in the past few months as part of its policy to speed up industry reform. Prior to the draft regulations of the telecom service contracts and the determination of tariffs, the NTC issued draft regulations on foreign control of local telecom-operators and on interconnection charges.

The interconnection charge requires all telecoms to split voice and data revenues from calls between their networks.

The NTC will speed up finalising the details of how to implement number portability, which allows users to retain their phone numbers when switching to other networks.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation