Singapore to release new consumer-centric telecom guidelines

By EgovAsia Editors | Dec 17, 2009

In March 2010, Singapore will reap more benefits from competitive telecommunication services as new guidelines for such services kick in.  The new guidelines will apply to new or renewed contracts for all fixed-line, mobile and broadband services offered to consumers from March 1, 2010 onwards.

With these guidelines, the maximum contract period for all such services will not exceed 24 months.  Consumers who sign on to contracts longer than three months and who terminate their contracts before the end of their contract period will no longer have to pay fixed early termination charges, but will see these charges decrease over time on a month-by-month basis.   In addition, operators offering these services must also ensure that these early termination charges do not include costs which they can avoid when the consumer terminates the contract.   Such costs could include back-end administrative and operational costs that the operator would not have to incur once the customer terminates the service.  

The new guidelines were prompted by consumers’ concerns that contract periods might be becoming unduly long, and early termination charges excessively high, which together hinder them from terminating the service and switching between operators.  These guidelines were subsequently developed after a public consultation and a review by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). 

IDA Deputy Chief Executive and Director-General (Telecoms and Post) Leong Keng Thai said, “We encourage the operators to compete with each other on price, quality and innovative services.  In promoting effective competition in the telecoms sector, we have to lower barriers for consumers to terminate services legitimately and switch from one operator to another to enjoy more attractive or competitively-priced