Issues Affecting Consumers Confidence in VoIP

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Issues Affecting Consumers Confidence in VoIP

• Ms Teresa Corbin
• Executive Director
• Consumers Telecommunications Network

December 2006
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About CTN

• The Consumers Telecommunications Network (CTN)
  is an independent non-profit community-based
  organisation in Australia. Established in 1989.
• We are an umbrella organisation with a membership
  of over 100 peak consumer bodies and individuals
  directly representing more than one million
  residential consumers in Australia.
• CTN is dedicated to representing the interests of
  residential consumers to improve the
  accessibility, availability and affordability of
  telecommunications products and services.
• CTN has an organisational reach to over 1 million
  Australian consumers

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Constituents

• Pensioners superannuants
• Low income consumers
• Families with children
• People with disabilities
• Tenants Groups
• Womens groups
• Rural remote consumers
• Indigenous Australians
• Deaf consumers
• People from non English speaking backgrounds
• Internet Users
• Not for Profit Community Service Groups
• Individual members

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Consumer Expectations

• To have their Safety guaranteed
• To be Secure
• To have their Privacy Protected
• To be properly Informed
• To be able to make real Choices
• To have Good Quality of Service
• To have Redress where needed
• To have Adequate Safety Nets
• To have a Strong Regulator
• To have Confidence to try and buy new products
  and services

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CTN Research on VoIP

• Conducted at beginning of 2006
• Informal interviews followed by an online survey
  of 87 VoIP consumers CTN members and
  participants of the VoIP forum on whirlpool.net.
• 44 multiple choice and free answer questions.
• An exploratory survey of VoIP consumers producing
  qualitative insights into emerging VoIP use and
  consumer, policy and regulatory issues. Further
  research is needed regulators and government
  need to consult widely with all consumers.

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Findings

• VoIP consumers surveyed were capable technology
  users willing to invest significant amounts of
  time into researching services and exercising
  informed choice.
• The strong majority were male, under the age of
  50.
• The market had taken off in the last 12 months.
• VoIP had provided access to a wide range of
  services.
• The overwhelming majority paid for a VoIP service
  and most had spent less than they had
  anticipated.
• There was a split in opinion on how to regulate
  VoIP.

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Key Findings

• Though an Internet Connection is essential to the
  delivery of VoIP, the accessibility and quality
  of broadband services available to VoIP consumers
  varies widely.

-93 per cent of VoIP consumers surveyed had an
Internet connection faster than 200kb/sec. -Wide
range of types of connections from dial-up, to
ADSL, to cable.
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Key Findings

• 2. Though the wide range of equipment and
  software available to deliver VoIP is providing
  flexibility to consumers, services need to be
  more user friendly and accessible.

-47 per cent of VoIP consumers surveyed had not
used software for their service. -41 per cent
had not used software provided to them by their
VoIP service provider. -No one hardware set-up
had been used by a strong majority.
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Key Findings

• 3. VoIP consumers favour on-going competition
  and freedom of choice in the VoIP market.

-VoIP consumers surveyed had used 44 different
providers without a clear leader
emerging. -Written comments indicated a desire
for high competition to ensure low prices and
improve service offerings.
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Key Findings

• 4. There is a strong international flavour to
  the VoIP market in Australia that needs to be
  monitored to ensure Australian consumers have
  protection.

-44 per cent of VoIP consumers surveyed had used
overseas-based VoIP providers. -It is unsure
exactly what recourse is available to Australian
consumers with overseas VoIP providers.
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Key Findings

• 5. VoIP call quality and call connection
  (interoperability) are pressing issues.

-Over 60 per cent of VoIP consumers surveyed had
experienced echo, noise or voice dropout. -Over
20 per cent had trouble connecting to landline
and mobile numbers. -Over 15 per cent had tried
to make an urgent call and been unable to.
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Key Findings

• 6. VoIP Consumers require better technical
  support for their VoIP services.

-19 per cent of VoIP consumers surveyed could not
identify problems they experienced with their
service. -30 per cent did not report their
problems to anyone. -20 per cent had security
concerns with their service, especially privacy
concerns.
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Key Findings

• 7. Consumers are in need of more public
  education efforts regarding VoIP.

-19.5 per cent of VoIP consumers surveyed were
not aware that there may be special conditions
activated is their cancelled a VoIP
service -13.9 per cent did not know that
warranties and service standards may apply to
their VoIP service. -5.7 per cent did know not
that emergency services availability is not
guaranteed on a VoIP service.
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Key Findings

• 8. Misleading, deceptive or incomplete product
  advertising and information provision for VoIP is
  a major concern.

-23 per cent of VoIP consumers surveyed felt that
their VoIP providers advertised their service as
a replacement for a telephone line. -17.2 per
cent answered that their own VoIP providers had
not given them enough information, had given them
confusing information or given them false
information.
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Recommendations

•  R1. Customer guarantees and industry standards
  must be established to provide wider
  accessibility and higher quality broadband
  Internet connections in Australia, especially in
  rural and remote regions. VoIP providers should
  also be required to explicitly state the minimum
  and optimum broadband requirements for their
  service.
• R2.  The development of standardised and
  user-friendly VoIP equipment and software,
  especially for consumers with disabilities, while
  maintaining a high degree of consumer choice,
  must be actively encouraged by government and
  industry bodies.

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Recommendations

• R3. Close monitoring of competition in the VoIP
  market is essential, and steps to keep costs low
  need to be taken while encouraging more
  functionality of services. These measures should
  include a register of VoIP providers and
  implementation of number portability.
• R4. Agreements or Memorandums of Understanding
  with overseas regulatory bodies should be
  negotiated to protect Australian consumers using
  VoIP services based overseas.

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Recommendations

• R5. Standards, agreements and technological
  solutions to deliver higher quality and more
  reliable VoIP services should be put in place.
  Specifically, guaranteeing availability to
  emergency services and establishing Internet
  Peering arrangements and Quality of Service (QoS)
  mechanisms.
•  
• R6. More universally accessible and effective
  technical support for VoIP services should be
  developed, including direct action to address
  consumers security concerns, including privacy.

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Recommendations

• R7. Consumer education campaigns must be
  launched to alert the public to the current
  issues and concerns with VoIP and the steps being
  taken to address them specifically
  accessibility of emergency services, the complex
  technical relationships behind VoIP, terms and
  conditions of contracts, and the total cost of
  a VoIP service.
•  
• R8.  Enforcement action must be taken to
  ensure VoIP service providers comply with all
  applicable regulations and legislation,
  specifically legislation such as the Trade
  Practices Act 1974 (Cth) to halt misleading and
  deceptive conduct and advertising.

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Recommendations

• R9. A registered industry code of practice
  for VoIP providers must be developed and
  implemented. This will ensure that consumer
  protection issues are addressed proactively, will
  ensure that there will be a smooth path for
  adoption of VoIP for residential consumers, and
  will set a strong precedent for future convergent
  technologies that emerge in Australia.

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CTN E-security Research

• F1. The strong majority of consumers had
  experienced many e-security threats despite using
  a range of security products and despite current
  consumer protections.
• F2. A small but significant proportion of
  consumers suffered financially, but many more
  suffered from a loss of productivity and had
  changed how they used the Internet because of
  security problems and concerns.
• F3. Consumer awareness of security threats was
  reasonable, but understanding and confidence to
  identify and guard against security threats was a
  concern.
• F4. A small proportion of consumers were
  mishandling Spam and phishing attacks.
• F5. Use of independent sources of information on
  e-security was low, and many consumers questioned
  the reliability and accessibility of information
  they had used.
• F6. Most consumers wanted Internet Service
  Providers, Government and fellow consumers to
  take more responsibility to improve e-security.

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Security VoIP

• Unresolved security concerns are a real threat to
  VoIP Services
• Consumers need to be assured that their banking
  transactions will be safe !
• Are VoIP Providers leaving their customers open
  to attack ?
• Consumers expect to be informed of threats and
  also be given options to protect themselves.

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Get Ahead

• Need to get past the Hype !
• Need to meet consumer expectations and get ahead
  of any calls for tougher regulation !
• Need to get serious and look beyond the
  whizzbang technology and use it to offer more
  than just price savings

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Opportunities

• Quality of Service
• Develop Customer Service Guarantees
• Develop a certification or grading system
• Access to Emergency Services
• Prioritise Voice (especially 000) Calls on the
  network
• Enter the data correctly in the IPND
• Industry accountability compliance
• Do your own reporting and publish benchmarks
• Pricing
• Look at flat rates and simple plans as attractive
  options for consumers
• Billing
• Introduce real time billing options and proper
  itemisations
• Credit management
• If you use caps make them REAL caps
• Establish and publicise Financial Hardship
  Policies

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More Opportunities

• Selling practices
• Give proper explanations at point of sale
• Use cooling off periods
• Call centres and telephone queues
• Provide good, accessible customer service for all
  consumers
• Use a call-back queue system
• Make your websites accessible
• Directory Services
• Provide free enhanced, accessible directory
  services
• Privacy
• Offer silent lines for free
• Offer telemarketing blocking
• Consumer Education
• Provide on-going training e.g podcasts and
  downloadable animated how to demonstrations
• Multilingual Services
• Use your global partners to offer multilingual
  services
• Become world leaders in informed consent

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And More

• Security
• Provide firewalls and teach your customers how to
  use these adequately
• Standardisation
• Work with other providers to establish equipment
  standards
• Use Universal design principles
• Interoperability
• Offer a VoIP to SMS facility
• Offer call diversion for dial-up users for free
• Innovation
• Set-up a video relay service for Deaf Consumers
• Consultation
• Work with consumer groups to find out more about
  what consumers need and expect use this
  information to build your businesses and markets

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Consumer Bottom Line

• Access to Emergency Services must be guaranteed
  at all times
• Fast, Symmetric Broadband needs to be available
• Quality of Service Issues must be resolved
• Security concerns must be addressed
• Equipment and Software Standards should be
  implemented ASAP
• ACMA must conduct compliance audits to ensure
  codes of practice are adhered with
• All VoIP Services should follow universal design
  principles
• A comprehensive consumer education campaign is
  essential

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CTN Resources

• Subscribe to CTN Weekly Web News Quarterly
  Newsletter _at_
• www.ctn.org.au
• Also see CTN Hot Topics
• http//www.ctn.org.au/content.cfm
• And CTN Latest Research
• CTN Consumer Research - Expectations and
  Experiences with Voice Over Internet Protocol
  (VoIP), March 2006
• SURFING ON THIN ICE CONSUMERS AND MALWARE,
  ADWARE, SPAM AND PHISHING", NOVEMBER 2006

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Contact

• Consumers Telecommunications Network
• Unit 2, 524-532 Parramatta Rd,
• Petersham NSW 2049
• www.ctn.org.au
• ctn_at_ctn.org.au
• Telephone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• TTY 61 2 9572 6047