WACT Puts The Boot In

Mike Tedd, chairman of the Welsh Advisory Committee on Telecommunications (WACT) has criticised a range of services in a report to Ofcom, which will replace the body he now belongs to.

He says reception is patchy in rural Wales, affecting business there, that Cardiff is the only place in the country where mobiles do not crackle, and that new directory inquiry services do not match up to users’ expectations.

The Western Mail reports:

“Some of the strongest words in the report attack the aftermath of the end of 192.

It claims, “The market will no doubt develop further, but the current position appears to be that most users of DQ [directory inquiry] services are paying more for an inferior service - there may well be better and cheaper services, but the advertising of 118118 has been brilliant and few people are disposed to learn other numbers, or to conduct careful comparisons. There are also concerns about the often extortionate costs of ‘follow-on-connect’ services, the large increase in charges for DQ from call boxes, and the consumer issues associated with DQ services recommending businesses that have paid for preferential treatment.”

The report recommends that “strong short-term regulation may be essential to long-term reduction in regulation.”

BT comes in for special criticism because of flaws in its fault repair service. The report said, “Oftel’s complaint statistics show that in a typical month there are about twice as many customer complaints (to Oftel) about BT’s repair service in Wales as compared with the UK’s as a whole, adjusting for population.”