Ofcom have amended and implemented the new General Conditions of Entitlement, which were enforced from the first of this month (01/10/2018).
The General Conditions are in place in order to regulate all providers of “electronic communications networks” and services within the UK. Although there is actually no law in place that permits these providers to obtain a specific license, the General Conditions must be adhered to.
Talks of amendments first began in December 2016, with the new rules focusing closely on simplification and Ofcom’s current concerns regarding communication providers.
Changes include the following:
- Stricter rules on complaints handling, with communication providers being urged to deal with customer complaints in a fast and efficient manner.
- Extended rules regarding calling line identification facilities, which includes an improvement to the accuracy and availability of these services to ensure emergency service calls are not blocked. Condition C6 of the new conditions require the relevant communication providers to offer calling line identification facilities by default and not as paid-for service. Unless it is not feasible or affordable for the provider to do so.
- The rules focus more so on vulnerable customers, which requires communication providers to implement policies to cater to the specific needs of these consumers, ensuring that they are treated in a fair manner.
- The power to withdraw number allocations has been improved to reduce the amount of misused calls, namely nuisance calls, as well as allowing for the recycling of numbers.
- There is also a new rule in place in order to blog calls with invalid calling line identification data, namely nuisance calls.
- Ofcom have updated the 2003 emergency planning direction and have also offered guidance in relation to procedures regarding terminating contracts with consumers under new condition C1.3.
- The General Conditions also contain rules regarding VoIP providers.
In order to comply with the new General Conditions of Entitlement, all communication providers should re-evaluate their current policies and procedures, ensuring that they are compliant with the new rules, and if not take the necessary steps to ensure overall compliance is clear.