ICP-ANACOM also carried out monitoring in various areas. This does not involve direct or on-the-spot inspections but active market supervision carried out indirectly, verifying compliance with the rules in force or the obligations to which operators are subject. It is based on the analysis of information provided by operators on their websites or information contained in contracts, on surveys sent out to operators or on statistical information which they are required to provide. In 2010, this type of monitoring included the following activities.
Monitoring of compliance with portability obligations
In 2010, ICP-ANACOM engaged in four particular types of actions in monitoring of compliance with portability obligations:
i) development of a portability monitoring and oversight plan, with the analysis of the causes underlying the large number of unsuccessful portability requests - between 17 percent and 30 percent from January to December, although with marked improvement from August;
ii) analysis of time limit associated with number portability in the mobile telephone service, specified in the respective regulation as a maximum of three working days, and the payment of monetary compensation to the subscriber in case of non-compliance with this time limit without need for prior request;
iii) clarification of the applicable compensation scheme;
iv) monitoring obligations of tariff transparency.
As such, and with regard to (i), ICP-ANACOM analyzed two specific aspects in detail. The first relates to the existence of a very large number of electronic portability requests left unanswered by the provider holding the number (timeouts). An exhaustive and detailed analysis was made of these requests, comprising all the providers involved, and the number of non-responses was calculated for each company, along with the rate of non-responses as a proportion of requests received. Since such occurrences constitute breaches of the Regulamento da Portabilidade (Portability Regulation), which stipulates that responses to electronic portability requests are to be given within 24 hours, infringement proceedings were instigated against 16 companies.
The second aspect that was investigated is related to the high number of refusals due to indication that a subscriber's SIM card number does not correspond to their mobile phone number. This is a means of validating mobile numbers when portability is requested and is necessary to avoid undue portability, particularly in the case of unidentified subscribers. Various ways were identified to overcome this difficulty, which is greater given the various means by which each mobile operator presents numbers on the SIM card.
As a result of investigations involving mobile operators, including those which remain ongoing, there are reasons to believe that requests for mobile number portability will be presented more accurately in terms of identifying the SIM card. This will contribute to an increase in the rate of successful portability operations and, consequently, reduce the time taken to deliver this feature to the subscriber. During 2011, information on this subject will be posted on ICP-ANACOM's website.
With regard to (ii) - the time limits associated with number portability in the mobile telephone service - it was found that, with respect to the electronic process, the average time taken for mobile number portability exceeded three working days; as a result ICP-ANACOM conducted an investigation with respect to compliance with this obligation, checking that payment of 2.50 euros for each day of delay was being made within 30 days, as stated in the Regulamento da Portabilidade (Portability Regulation).
ICP-ANACOM took the view that these cases of non-compliance stemmed in part from ignorance among users as to their rights regarding the portability of mobile numbers; as such, by notice of 1 September, ICP-ANACOM recommended that operators should make information available on their websites, in their retail outlets and at other points of sale, setting out the time limits applicable to the execution of mobile number portability and with details of users' rights to compensation whenever this time limit is exceeded.
In relation to (iii) - clarification of the applicable compensation scheme - and following several complaints from operators and following meetings held with these operators to discuss disagreements between donor and recipient providers over the implementation of the compensation scheme provided for in article 26 of the Regulamento da Portabilidade (Portability Regulation), on 16 April 2010, ICP-ANACOM published a clarification on the issue on its website.
On its website, ICP-ANACOM has posted information provided by operators on the documents required to terminate contracts with portability.
Finally, with regard to (iv) - monitoring obligations of tariff transparency - in 2010, ICP-ANACOM compiled information reported at the end of 2009 and at the end of the first half of 2010, including information on numbers to access the service giving information on prices of calls to ported numbers and information concerning the procedures indicated by MTS providers to deactivate/reactivate the portability announcement. This was also used to update the information provided to the general public on ICP-ANACOM's website. This information is collected from responses given to the six-monthly portability questionnaire (approved by decision of 11 November 2009), which compiles and systemises the information which companies with portability obligations are required to submit to ICP-ANACOM. With this information ICP-ANACOM is able to monitor the performance of this feature and verify compliance with the portability obligations set out in the Regulamento da Portabilidade (Portability Regulation) and the LCE.
Based on the information collected in the portability questionnaire, a number of investigations were conducted in April 2010 to confirm/verify compliance, where applicable, with the consumer information obligations laid down in the Regulamento da Portabilidade (Portability Regulation) and to verify that the information provided to ICP-ANACOM under article 22 of the same Regulation is properly updated.
Following analysis of the investigations results, it was concluded that the majority of provider companies were compliant with the consumer information obligations under the regulation, but there were exceptions. These exceptions included, in the case of the mobile telephone service: (i) a situation in which the portability announcement could not be switched off using the numbers indicated by the company in its response to the six monthly portability questionnaire; it was also found that the information provided about the procedures to be followed by the customer calling to activation or block the announcement was incorrect or did not correspond to the information that the company provided to ICP-ANACOM; (ii) in another situation, it was found that, in the case of calls made specifically to numbers ported to a particular service provider, an announcement was heard which was not fully compliant with the stipulations of the regulation.
However, after sending notices giving an account of irregularities detected, the companies in question informed ICP-ANACOM that, in the meantime, the reported situations had been remedied - this was later confirmed with further investigation.
Monitoring quality of service
Monitoring information on quality of service laid down in the RQS - Regulamento sobre Qualidade de Serviço (Quality of Service Regulation)
ICP-ANACOM monitored the information on quality of service which, under the Regulamento de Qualidade de Serviço (Quality of Service Regulation) (Regulation no. 46/2005 of 14 June, as amended by Regulation no. 372/2009 of 28 August), it receives from companies providing the FTS on a quarterly basis.
As last year, in 2010, ICP-ANACOM released quarterly reports on its website containing key information on quality of service submitted by these companies and indication of the links which can be used to access information which each of the companies makes available on their websites.
Model of disclosure of information on quality of service to end-users
Pursuant to the RQS, in December 2010, ICP-ANACOM conducted a survey of the websites of FTS providers to ascertain how the operators were disclosing quality of service information defined in the Regulation on their websites and the degree to which there were following the model of disclosure of such information to end-users defined by ICP-ANACOM (model approved by this Authority, as a recommendation, by determination of 11 November 2009).
This verification was performed in relation to information disclosed on the performance targets proposed by companies for 2010, whereby it was concluded that there was a reasonable level of compliance among companies with the majority of the rules recommended in ICP- ANACOM's disclosure model. However, it was found that information on quality of service included on the website of one of the providers was not disclosed in accordance with paragraph 6 of article 7 of the RQS; as a result the company was notified, in early 2011, in order to rectify the situation.
Monitoring models of disclosure of information on quality of service in ISP subscription contracts
Between 1 October and 10 November 2010, a survey was carried out on how information on quality of service is provided in the contracts of Internet access service providers, with reference to ICP-ANACOM determination of 1 September 2005, as amended in December 2008, referring to the "Guidelines on minimum content to be included in contracts governing the provision of electronic communications services":
The analysis of compiled data covered items related to quality of service which, under these "Guidelines", is to be included on a mandatory basis in contracts governing provision of Internet access, as well as information whose inclusion in contracts is recommended.
The main conclusion of the survey was that, besides the mandatory elements, there was a generally low level of adherence among providers of Internet access services when it came to including aspects related to quality of service in contracts and their commitment to such aspects under these contracts.
As such, it was found that all providers consider at least one parameter for which they undertake to provide customers with determined levels of quality and in respect of which non-compliance, where attributable to the provider, may give rise to customer compensation or reimbursement. In many cases this parameter is the maximum time taken by the service provider to make initial connection of the service - inclusion of this parameter is mandatory under applicable legislation.
It was also found that contracts also contain parameters establishing minimum levels of quality which ISP undertake to provide customers without stating explicit consequences for non-compliance - the most common of these is the deadline for responding to complaints.
ICP-ANACOM will continue to monitor this issue in 2011.
Monitoring of various aspects associated with retail offers
Below, actions are presented which are aimed at monitoring various aspects associated with retail offers. At the end of each quarter, ICP-ANACOM compiles, processes, analyzes and publishes statistical information on the fixed telephone service, mobile telephone service, Internet access service, subscription TV service, postal services and next generation networks (from the third quarter).
At the same time, ICP-ANACOM conducted surveys and analyses of the offers and tariffs of these services, producing international comparisons and analysing results, in particular with respect to the points below.
Compliance with disclosure obligations in ISP subscription contracts and on the respective websites
At the end of 2010, checks were carried out of which Internet access service providers (ISP) published their subscription contracts on their websites.
It was found that some ISP did not make their contracts available on their websites, indicating a lack of compliance with the requirements set out in ICP-ANACOM determination of 21 April 2006, on the object and form of public disclosure of the conditions of provision and use of electronic communication services. As such, in early 2011, notices were sent requiring these companies to remedy the detected situations.
ICP-ANACOM will continue to monitor this situation in 2011.
Model of disclosing tariffs on the websites of multiple-play service providers and providers of nomadic VoIP services
As part of an inquiry carried out during 2010 as to the websites of providers offering multiple-play services and providers offering nomadic VoIP services, various irregularities were detected related to the disclosure of tariffs, deemed to be non-compliant with the stipulations of ICP-ANACOM determination of 21 April 2006 on the object and form of public disclosure of the conditions of provision and use of electronic communication services. These situations have been reported to the companies concerned so that they might be remedied.
ICP-ANACOM will continue to monitor this issue in 2011.
Model of disclosure by providers of information about Homezoning offers
As part of its inquiries, carried out in 2010, as to the websites of companies providing Homezoning offers 1, it was concluded there were no cases of non-compliance with the specific consumer information obligations defined by ICP-ANACOM pursuant to determinations relating to such offers.
Provision by companies providing telephone services, of tariffs with per second billing and monitoring of the model for the disclosure of these tariffs
According to ICP-ANACOM's position of 7 May 2008 on the application to electronic communications of point q) of article 8 of Decree-Law no. 57/2008 of 26 March (on unfair commercial practices), all companies providing telephone services are required to provide a tariff with a single initial period followed by per-second billing - which may constitute an opt-in logic with respect to all existing tariffs.
On the other hand, ICP-ANACOM's determination of 21 April 2006 on the object and form of public disclosure of the conditions of provision and use of electronic communication services sets out, among other things, that providing companies shall make tariffs available on their websites, where existing, and that information is to be provided in a manner which is clear, visible and easily accessible.
In this context, inquiries were conducted between October and November 2010 on websites of companies with consumer offers (residential sector) in the context of the following services: FTS, MTS, nomadic VoIP service (with time-based billing) and the Internet access service dial-up (with time-based billing)
With respect to certain companies and in the context of certain services, ICP-ANACOM detected situations where no offer was available conforming to the regulator's position , as outlined above. In some cases, non-compliant situations were found with respect to the disclosure of tariffs on the websites of provider companies. These irregularities were reported to the provider companies responsible by notices issued at the end of 2010, for the purpose of correction.
ICP-ANACOM will continue to monitor this issue in 2011.
Monitoring compliance with the rules on the inclusion of advertising and information of utilitarian nature in telephone directories to be provided within the scope of Universal Service
In 2010, ICP-ANACOM took action to verify compliance by PT Comunicações with ICP-ANACOM's determination on the inclusion of advertising and information of utilitarian nature in telephone directories to be provided within the scope of the universal service.
With this determination of 8 November 2005 (amended on 14 June 2007), ICP-ANACOM sought to ensure that PTC does not take advantage of the US obligation to provide directories by including advertising references which distort the objectives of information covered by the obligation and does not use these media to adopt behaviours that may harm competition.
As set out in this determination, the opening pages of telephone directories should be used to convey information of utilitarian nature to their users, listing numbers which can be used to reach the emergency services, public utility numbers and also the customer service and information numbers of each provider of publicly available electronic communications services that so requests, with information on the costs of contacting these services, as well as an indication of the respective "websites".
Accordingly, as part of its oversight activity, ICP-ANACOM performed checks on the following directories: "Algarve"; "Alentejo e Setúbal"; "Ribatejo e Estremadura" (67th edition); "Baixo Minho e Douro Litoral"; "Minho"; "Aveiro e Viseu"; "Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro"; "Beira Interior"; "Lisboa Classificada (129th edition)", "Açores" (67th edition), "Zona Norte de Lisboa"; "Margem Sul do Tejo"; "Sintra e Cascais"; "Porto"; "Coimbra e Leiria (68th edition)"; "Alentejo/Algarve (68th edition)"; and "Madeira (68th edition)".
1 Homezoning offers entail the provision of the FTS using the GSM/UMTS mobile networks, i.e., the offer enables the use of GSM and UMTS frequencies of the land mobile network on the local access network for the provision of the telephone service at a fixed location.
