Italy’s competition regulator has fined H3G (3 Italia) US$2,12,580 over excessively complex and confusing contractual terms.
According to the watchdog, the restrictions or conditions of use for the services provided by the mobile operator are laid down in its contract in a way that is likely to confuse and mislead consumers.
The penalty was due to insufficient information provided to customers during the implementation of new tariff plans introduced from December 2007.
Vodafone Greece has lowered the monthly fair usage policy for domestic data usage to 10 GB from 30GB for a number of tariff plans, effective from 14th March.
The change applies for voice tariff plans which include data, Mobile Internet data plans for mobiles and Blackberry data plans. Subscribers who are affected by these changes have the right to terminate their contract without penalty within one month.
New York has raised the penalty for motorists caught using a mobile while driving and not using a hands-free unit . Now, two points will be imposed on the driving records of those caught.
Previously, no points were assigned for talking on a cell phone although two points are assigned for texting while driving violations. The new regulation will align the point penalty for both violations. Drivers who collect 11 penalty points in 18 months face a temporary loss of their license.
In November 2001, New York became the first in the nation to adopt a state-wide ban on handheld cell phone use while driving and established a fine for the violation of up to US$100.
In November 2009, a law eliminating the use of portable electronic devices for texting while driving took effect, a violation that currently has two points attached to it along with a US$150 fine. The new change applies the penalty points in addition to the financial fine.
According to DMV Executive Deputy Commissioner, J. David Sampson, distracted driving is one of the most serious dangers on their roadways today. By strengthening the current law, their hope is that motorists will become even more aware of the potential consequences of their actions if they use a cell phone while driving.
In New York State, driver distraction is estimated to be a contributing factor in at least one out of five crashes. Each year, over 300,000 tickets are issued statewide for cell phone violations. In 2009, nearly 5,500 people died nationwide in crashes involving a distracted or inattentive driver and more than 440,000 were injured.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has arrived at a settlement with Bell Canada over the company’s unauthorized telemarketing practices. The CRTC has issued a notice of violation, and Bell Canada has paid an administrative monetary penalty of $1.3 million to the Receiver General for Canada.
Between January and October of this year, calls were made to consumers who had registered their numbers on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) or who were or should have been on Bell Canada’s internal do not call list.
These telemarketing practices are contrary to the National DNCL Rules. The CRTC’s investigation found that the calls originated from independent telemarketers hired by Bell Canada to promote and sell its television, telephone, wireless and Internet services.
According to Andrea Rosen, the CRTC’s Chief Telecommunications Enforcement Officer, all telemarketers must respect the wishes of Canadians who have registered their telephone number on the National DNCL or requested that all telemarketers include these numbers on its internal do not call list. Even though the calls in this instance were made by third parties, Bell Canada must ultimately ensure that the rules are followed. She added that they appreciated Bell Canada’s willingness to work with them to address their concerns.
Singapore’s Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) has planned to bring changes in the laws that govern telecom operators, these changes would increase penalties for companies that violate conditions of their licenses.
According to the Ministry, Telecom networks have become important as consumers rely on these networks for all forms of communication services as well as other important services provided by these operators, such as, data, video, Internet access and television services.
Among the major proposed changes are higher penalties for operators that violate conditions of their license or engage in anti-competitive conduct.
The existing utmost penalty of US$736 811 would be increased to 10% of the company’s annual revenue for the licensed service or US$736811, whichever is higher. In addition, MICA’s scheme would give the Infocommunications Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the body that oversees the telecom sector, the authority to suspend or cancel the licenses of companies who don’t pay fines on time.
The proposed changes would also create a unique management order that will allow MICA to conquest a licensee and its operations under certain conditions.
New Delhi, Aug 27: The first penalty over failure to undertake subscriber verification may well be a reality with Department of Telecom finding four mobile operators – Bharti Airtel, Aircel Digilink, Idea Mobile and the state-owned BSNL for violating the norm for Haryana circle.
Currently at an internal discussion stage, a DoT note said, “the licensees of BSNL, Aircel Digilink, Bharti Airtel and Idea Mobile Communications have violated the conditions of their respective agreements.”
As per the conditions of the agreement, actions could be taken for violations and a financial penalty could be imposed not exceeding Rs 50 crore or the license agreement could be terminated after giving a notice of 60 days in advance, said an internal note of DoT.
But the proposal has to get the approval from Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and DoT has to issue first a notice to them why they should not be penalised.
DoT’s stern proposal also emanates from its own findings that these operators have provided multiple connections in single names. On scrutiny as many as 30,630 connections of Bharti Airtel was found to be without records.
The note said even if connections are given on different dates if the number of connections are 10 or more for a single user as well as for a single location, it should be treated as bulk connections.
The note says all operators have failed to answer specifically about the compliance of instructions issued by the licensor in respect of — carrying out special verification for bulk connections, devising appropriate fraud management and prevention programme and maintaining a record of check for verification by the licensor.
Besides other instructions — inspection of bulk user premises at regular interval for satisfying about bonafide use and maintaining records of inspection and preserving the same for minimum one year — have also not been followed.
BSNL has not furnished any reply in respect of allegations made against it and rather sought clarifications from DoT.
Aircel Digilink India, Idea Mobile Communications and Reliance Communications have raised issues regarding non-availability of requisite documents with the most of the bonafide customers and tried to shift the responsibility of subscriber verification on the respective franchisees.
Tata Teleservices has stated that connections provided by them do not fall under the bulk connections category as the connections were provided on different dates.
The DoT’s vigilance wing carried out a check of subscriber verification by different operators in Haryana telecom circle after widespread allegation that operators were giving bulk connections not adhering to subscriber verifications. Accordingly, replies were sought from operators there.
Source- http://www.zeenews.com
Technorati : Aircel Digilink, Bharti, Idea, India, Mobile, Reliance Communications
Ice Rocket : Aircel Digilink, Bharti, Idea, India, Mobile, Reliance Communications
