Last year, more than 56,000 complaints were received via the portal “Reporting Office for Number Abuse”, initiated by the RTR arbitration committee. “Compared to the previous year, this means a doubling of complaints,” said Dr. Klaus M. Steinmaurer, RTR’s general manager for the Telecommunications and Postal Department, at the presentation of the annual report on Thursday. Drivers were therefore mainly fraudulent text messages, good for almost 33,000 messages.
However, Steinmaurer promises improvement: “The 2021 Telecommunications Act, which has been in force since November, enables us to combat number misuse in a more targeted way than in the past. In case of serious misuse, RTR can, for example, block numbers or oblige providers to warn free of charge. It is also conceivable to issue direct debit prohibitions for providers. In any case, we will do everything we can to put an end to this really ugly activity.”
Complaint level constantly low
The good news: While number abuse “exploded” according to RTR, the overall number of complaints remained “constantly low”. According to this data, RTR’s arbitration boards registered 1,938 arbitration proceedings last year – a decrease of six percent from 2020. 1,850 proceedings were in the telecommunications sector, 88 proceedings in the media sector. “The number of procedures registered each year has developed positively over the past five years and hovers around 2000,” Steinmaurer says.
As in previous years, the majority of the proceedings were due to “contract interpretation problems, often with complex legal and technical issues, but no major disruptions”. Complaints about internet access were also limited. There was a slight increase to a total of 153 cases in network quality procedures for mobile Internet access. With a total of 66 cases, the network quality procedures for Internet access via fixed networks remained close to last year’s level.
“Good testimonial” for network providers
A1 (727) accounted for most procedures, followed by Magenta (521) and Three (504). According to RTR, the discount providers Hot and Spusu again made a positive impression. “We can certainly give all providers a good grade for the 2021 reporting year. All are characterized by a high degree of customer focus and are very cooperative when participating in the arbitration process. This is also evidenced by the overall agreement rate of 79 percent for all procedures,” said Steinmaurer.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
