Here’s why OUR’s guaranteed standards not applicable to FLOW, Digicel

At an OUR Town Hall Meeting February 24 at the Institute of Vocational and Professional Training Institute in Spring Village, St Catherine, members of the public were shocked to learn that the OUR’s guaranteed standards are not applicable to the telecoms sector though they fit the classification of utility provider.

“I needed to point out to you that the guaranteed standards do not apply to the telecoms. Why? The law. As simple as that. The law does not allow us to do that,” said Gordon Brown, public affairs co-ordinator at the OUR.

Under the OUR Act of 1995 the governing body is responsible for regulating the provision of utility services in the electricity, water and sewerage and yes, telecommunications. But its reach regarding the latter is limited, given the reality outlined by Brown.

Despite this seemingly odd situation, the regulator is pushing for a change, Gordon said.

“But we are trying. We have proposed quality of service standards for the telecom companies and that is being optimized now for it to be further pushed to the stage where hopefully it will be debated in parliament.

“Additionally, we’re going to propose penalties, sanctions for breaches of certain rules that utilities under the telecoms arena would have,” said Brown

The OUR officer said when certain breaches occurred consumers will be compensated as is the case with the JPS and NWC. Currently the JPS is prohibited from submitting three consecutive estimated billing to its customers. Compensation with JPS is automated while a claim on NWC must be submitted by the aggrieved customer before compensation is authorized.

Brown is encouraging utility consumers to file their claim.