With a view to enhancing the transparency of pricing of chargeable items in the provision of telecommunications services by local fixed and mobile operators, the Communications Authority (see footnote 1) issued in October 2011 a voluntary Code of Practice in Relation to Billing Information and Payment Collection for Telecommunications Services. The Code of Practice requires telecommunications service providers to provide customers with itemised billing information for verification of charges, take reasonable steps to ensure accuracy of billing and collection of payment, and report to the Office of the Communications Authority in a timely manner in the event of any incident involving systematic errors in these aspects.
For the purpose of verifying the charges incurred for usage of services, consumers may,
The itemised information may include the following attributes and details, as the case may be –
|
Time-based |
✔ date, time and duration of call and charges incurred; ✔ unit rate of call ✔ roaming country and/or partner ✔ incoming call number (subject to technical feasibility and excluding local numbers dialled with the prefix “133”) ✔ outgoing call number |
|
Volume-based
|
✔ date, time (optional) and volume of data transferred and charges incurred ✔ unit rate per data volume ✔ roaming country and/or partner ✔ websites or IP addresses accessed or connected (see footnote 2). |
|
Event-based |
✔ date of the event and charges incurred ✔ event type ✔ unit rate per event ✔ roaming country and/or partner ✔ local addressing identifiers such as customer number, etc. |
|
Service-based |
✔ date and time of the service subscribed and charges incurred ✔ service type ✔ validity period ✔ unit rate per service ✔ addressing identifiers such as customer number, etc. |
Effective from 1 July 2012, seven local fixed and four mobile network operators have pledged compliance with the Code of Practice. A summary of the compliance status by operators can be found here. We will closely monitor the implementation of the Code of Practice, and provide updates periodically.
1 Pursuant to the Communications Authority Ordinance (Cap 616), with effect from 1 April 2012, all duties and powers of the Telecommunications Authority are conferred on the Communications Authority (CA), and all duties and powers of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority are conferred on the Office of the Communications Authority, the executive arm of the CA.
2 A lead-time of 14 working days will apply for requests for information on websites or Internet-Protocol (IP) addresses which are associated with disputes on the concerned usage. In view of the amount of the information associated with the websites or IP addresses which may be recorded, service providers may provide a list of websites or IP addresses which contributes to the top 60% or more of either the traffic or the billed amount concerned.