The Hindu Business Line : Telecom sector sets up ombudsman for consumer complaints

New Delhi March 12 Facing flak over increasing consumer complaints, telecom service providers on Monday announced the setting up an Office of Ombudsman for telephone users.

Consumers will be able to directly take their complaints to the Ombudsman and the decision taken would be binding on operators. Telecom users, however, will have the option to take their grievance to any other forum like the consumer courts, in case they are not satisfied with the decision taken by the industry Ombudsman.

Mr T.V. Ramachandran, Director-General, Cellular Operators Association of India, said that the ombudsman scheme would be run as a voluntary and self-regulatory industry initiative.

The ombudsman will be funded by the industry including both private and public operators. Mr S.C. Khanna, Secretary-General, Association of Unified Service Providers of India, said that the office for the Telecom Sector Ombudsman (TSO) will be set up in New Delhi. The TSO would function as a private arbitrator and settlement authority and will not be a legal forum with advocates representing the parties.

The industry has requested Mr Justice D.P. Wadhwa, former Chairman of the National Consumer Commission and also former Chairman of the telecom tribunal, to head the Office of the TSO.

In the present set up, the individual consumer complaints are beyond the scope of the telecom regulator or the tribunal and approaching the consumer courts is the only recourse available.

However, since consumer courts are not dedicated to telecom related problems, following this recourse could be a time consuming affair for the consumer.

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