Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat met with members of the Consumers’ Rights Protection Committee during its first meeting with its new formation at the headquarters of the Ministry, in the presence of Mostafa Abdel Wahed, the executive president of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA).
During the meeting, the minister suggested that the committee increase the issuance of recommendations regarding the implementation of awareness campaigns on the rights and duties of participants.
Talaat said that about $1.6bn were invested in a year and a half in information infrastructure in order to improve internet services, which resulted in an increase in the average download speeds of the internet from 5.7 Mbps to 20 Mbps. The National Center for ICT Services Quality Control and Monitoring was established under NTRA with the aim of conducting periodic measurements of the quality of voice and internet services provided by telecommunications companies operating in Egypt, and making measurements reports available to citizens monthly.
At the end of the meeting, the committee recommended reviewing the procedures of services provided to subscribers and moving from one operator to another; reviewing the forms of contracts between subscribers and service providers to maximise the balance between the two parties to the relationship; and preparing a recommendation regarding privacy protection and confidentiality of the data of customers of telecommunications service providers; as well as forming a subcommittee to review citizens’ complaints.
It is worth noting that the Consumers’ Rights Protection Committee follows the NTRA and includes a group of eminent personalities and experts with technological, medical, legal, and media backgrounds, along with civil society representatives and academic professors. It is entrusted with ensuring the rights of Egyptian users within the ICT sector, represented in free competition and the appropriate prices, the quality of the service provided, the prevention of monopoly, attention to people with special needs, the provision of appropriate services to them, and the elimination of wrong practices by spreading awareness of telecommunications services.
Talat had issued a decision to reconstitute the committee headed by Abdel Wahed.