OfReg finally makes telecoms warn of outages
(CNS): More than six years after the Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) was established and over three since the auditor general raised the alarm about its numerous failings, officials have confirmed new rules that require licensed telecommunications companies to notify customers of planned outages. They must also now submit detailed reports on why communications are down for both planned and unexpected cuts. Peter Gough, who has been the interim CEO of the beleaguered regulator for well over one year, said that OfReg was determined to put in place the necessary consumer protection measures.
The new rules include an enhanced reporting scheme. Telecom companies are now required to give OfReg all the details and causes of any unplanned outage and advance notice of those that are planned. Officials stated in a release that obligating licensees to report disruptions would help the public as well as critical facilities such as hospitals and emergency services.
The enhanced reports must include detailed information on the nature and cause of outages, such as a specific component failure, loss of power or a cyber attack. This level of detail is essential for OfReg to improve monitoring of the reliability, resiliency and security of Cayman’s communications infrastructure as well as consumer service standards, the regulator said.
Some rules have been in place for some time, but OfReg admitted that the reports did not provide the level of clarity on the breadth, frequency and impact that outages were having on consumers and networks. There was no obligation to notify customers, allowing a telephone company to shut down services without telling anyone who might be relying on the service.
Customers must now be notified and OfReg should get the details necessary to evaluate the licensees’ compliance and the resiliency of networks. It will then be better placed to protect Cayman’s critical national telecoms infrastructure.
Sonji Myles, OfReg’s executive director for the telecommunications sector, said it was essential to get this information to maintain and improve the infrastructure reliability. “It provides the basis for us to determine whether any outages or repeated outages justify regulatory interventions or industry cooperation initiatives to prevent the recurrence of similar outages,” he added.
Six years after the regulator was established to monitor these basic issues, Gough said the proper functioning of public communications infrastructure was critical for consumers.
“As the regulator, we are determined to put in place the necessary consumer protection measures. The new rules for the reporting of outages in the telecommunications sector are another tool that we will use to ensure consumers get the level and quality of service they deserve and pay for,” he added
See the new rules in the OfReg determination document here.
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Category: Business, Politics, Private Sector Oversight, utilities
How does one get to speak to a Flow manager- they have a firewall that’s the best in the business, the only thing they are best in.
Well you people have nothing good to say about the Civil Service but it took one of them to finally get Offreg to do something.
6.59pm The Auditor General is not a Civil Servant thank goodness. What the Civil Service needs more than anything is accountability, the lack of which is the cause of all these delays with the Civil Service.
I suggest you ask the Auditor General if she is a civil servant, 12:04. She is, of course, though hired differently from others and with a different reporting relationship/structure.
How about stop letting them offer “unlimited” plans when it isn’t unlimited.
OfReg is finally moving under new leadership. Hope it’s an indication of things to come
I smell a family planted comment!
I can only assume you mean at the Board level, which has a new chair. Pity that the late Mr Ebanks was unable to be the chair for very long before he became ill.
OfReg should have been dismantled years ago! Just slurpers at the government trough.
FAT CHANCE!
It’s funny how slow telecoms businesses are to offer discount (if at all), but quick to chase payments.
Emails about billing are addressed quickly. Emails about refunds or service complaints go unacknowledged and ignored.
As for the amazing roaming rates offered, I’d rather die than hand over my money to Digicel. I can use an esim for a handful of dollars, or I can roam and need a bank loan.
and what happens if the ‘licensed telecommunications companies’ dont ? – thought so. Ofreg is almost as useless as a K Bryan integrity care package.
https://www.ofreg.ky/rules
6 years?
so what did ITCA do.
you cant restart the clock because of a name change?
A pig with lipstick is still a pig.
Useless lodge employment service.
FACTS!
Possibly criminal failures to enforce our laws, whilst wasting public funds and then costing the Caymanian people millions?
Could OfReg perhaps look at the systematic overcharging of Flow customers for off-island roaming….
Sure, or the inability of any telecom to deliver true LTE, let alone 5G speeds even at many times the real world billing. I might even settle for a voicemail system that wasn’t from 2005, nut we’d still be waiting.
Overcharging for everything, everywhere!
Imagine a consumer playing field where licensed businesses and regulated public offices treated all their paying customers equally, and attentively like valued clients; and our invited guests with patience, kindness, and hospitality? Despite the touted “Christian” guidance, it seems Cayman will never get there without organized consumer advocacy, voter agency, and policy action. Adverse conditioning has primed us to expect quietly deficient outcomes across the spectrum of daily interaction. Too many obsolete mindsets that need reformatting, it seems. But it’s worth trying, if we all want to get to that better place.
Does this include notification of network bottlenecks that cause customers to lose bandwidth and or connection. Doesn’t seem so. Every time you call your internet service provider about a perceived network slowdown they say “no problems at all”.
I guess we’ll have to wait another 6 years for OfReg to enact such policy.
Why can’t they make it a requirement that Telecoms post realtime network performance on their websites, or is that just too transparent?
Or, they tell you you should not do a speed test over WiFi, but rather hard-wire your device to the modem and run a test.
My Ipad does not have a port for a hard wire….what a load of bollocks!
Best use two tin cans and a string and see what you get
Another armchair expert.
how many lodge members in ofreg?
This is a critical question than most realise…
disband ofreg now.
classic case of civil service/cig incomptence and underperformance.
The most worthless regulatory institution ever formed and ran in the Cayman Islands. Bar none….
YES! Isn’t it disgusting! If we had honest leaders it would not be like that.