Consumer protection for mobile phone users in Thailand
By Jon Fernquest
GPRS is the technology currently
being used in Thailand to connect to the internet with a
mobile phone.If post-paid mobile phone users are not careful they may end up with bills as high as 16,000...70,000 or even 100,000 baht !
Today's article discusses consumer protection for mobile phone users in Thailand and the Thai government agency set up to protect consumer rights in the area of telecommunications.
Today's article begins after the vocabulary:
GPRS
- the mobile phone service used in Thailand for viewing the internet
that goes together with GMS (See Wikipedia)
GMS (Global System for Mobile communications) - the most popular techoology for mobile phone systems in the world, used in Thailand (See Wikipedia)
postpaid users - mobile phone users who get a monthly bill for their mobile phone use
prepaid customers - mobile phone users who buy a card to put money in their mobile phone
end up with Y - get Y after some process happens
consumer protection - making buying things safe (so that buyers are not cheated by sellers)
telecommunications - communications by radio waves using mobile phones, TV, radio, broadband internet.. (See Wikipedia)
rights - something you are legally or morally allowed to do or have (See Wikipedia)
consumer rights - something that consumers are legally or morally allowed to do or have
GMS (Global System for Mobile communications) - the most popular techoology for mobile phone systems in the world, used in Thailand (See Wikipedia)
postpaid users - mobile phone users who get a monthly bill for their mobile phone use
prepaid customers - mobile phone users who buy a card to put money in their mobile phone
end up with Y - get Y after some process happens
consumer protection - making buying things safe (so that buyers are not cheated by sellers)
telecommunications - communications by radio waves using mobile phones, TV, radio, broadband internet.. (See Wikipedia)
rights - something you are legally or morally allowed to do or have (See Wikipedia)
consumer rights - something that consumers are legally or morally allowed to do or have
MOBILE INTERNET CHARGES
More complaints30/09/2009
In the first eight months of this year, there were approximately 30 cases of complaints from mobile phone users related to service or mobile Internet usage, according to Dr Prawit Leesatapornwongsa, Director of the GPRSTelecommunications Consumer Protection Institute (TCI) under the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
National
Telecommunications Commission (NTC) - the first independent
state telecommunications regulator in Thailand, regulates all
telecommunications services, formulates a master plan, sets criteria
and categories of telecommunications services, permits and regulates
the use of spectrum for telecommunications services and grants licenses
to telecommunications operators (See websitepolicy)
Telecommunications Consumer Protection Institute (TCI) - the government agency under the NTC above that works to protect the consumers of telecommunications services in Thailand
charges, service charges - amount of money that must be paid to receive a service
Telecommunications Consumer Protection Institute (TCI) - the government agency under the NTC above that works to protect the consumers of telecommunications services in Thailand
charges, service charges - amount of money that must be paid to receive a service
Currently, new generation mobile phones are connected to the Internet by default to make usage more convenient. However, more and more complaints are related to this issue as buyers of new 3G mobile phones are unaware of the GPRS default setting.
Moreover, consumers may not clearly understand GPRS service charges which have two models - charging by time and charging by amount of data sent and received.
default - what
happens if you don't change it to something that you want
default setting - the original setting, the setting that a system comes with
by default - what happens if no changes it
3G mobile phones - third generation mobile phone, the next level of mobile phone services beyond the current second generation (2G), supports broadband internet, supports greater numbers of voice and data customers especially in urban areas (See Wikipedia on 3G)
unaware of - do not know about
models - a system, a simple description of how a system works (to help you understand it)
default setting - the original setting, the setting that a system comes with
by default - what happens if no changes it
3G mobile phones - third generation mobile phone, the next level of mobile phone services beyond the current second generation (2G), supports broadband internet, supports greater numbers of voice and data customers especially in urban areas (See Wikipedia on 3G)
unaware of - do not know about
models - a system, a simple description of how a system works (to help you understand it)
Some users may think they do not use a lot of data so choose charging by 12 satang per 1 kb which can cost 16,000 baht per month because it pulls large amounts of data from websites. In other cases consumers may use a fixed price of 40 hours per month but when they go over the limit the system doesn't terminate automatically so users have to check the time and amount of data more carefully.
package limit - how
much phone time you can use before you have to start paying more on
monthly bill (charges added)
go over the limit - use more phone time than your package gives you, so you have to pay more (charges added)
terminate automatically - stop itself without the user stopping it
go over the limit - use more phone time than your package gives you, so you have to pay more (charges added)
terminate automatically - stop itself without the user stopping it
Most problems are due to exceeding the package limit. There was a case when one person was charged 70,000 baht. In another case a businessman's GPRS signal quality was not reliable, which caused him to lose more than 100,000 baht.
exceeding - passing
a limit, going beyond
GPRS signal - GPRS radio waves that carry information from the internet
GPRS signal quality - how well a mobile phone is receiving information from the internet using GPRS (not receiving well means connection is slow)
reliable - works and behaves the way you expect
GPRS signal - GPRS radio waves that carry information from the internet
GPRS signal quality - how well a mobile phone is receiving information from the internet using GPRS (not receiving well means connection is slow)
reliable - works and behaves the way you expect
The number of complaints in Thailand still small because most consumers did not realise their rights. Dr Prawit suggests that postpaid users set their credit limit to reduce overspending and select a phone more carefully because it may have some menu or application that connects it to the Internet automatically.
credit - money that
you owe someone (a bill that grows until you pay it off at the end of
the month, for example)
limit - a highest or lowest amount
credit limit - the limit that you set for the highest amount your bill can be (at the end of the month)
limit - a highest or lowest amount
credit limit - the limit that you set for the highest amount your bill can be (at the end of the month)
(Source: MOBILE INTERNET CHARGES, More complaints, 30/09/2009, link)
