Federal Council targets high roaming tariffs and annoying advertising calls
The Federal Council is getting serious and declaring war on high roaming charges and unwanted advertising calls. The focus should be on customers, who will be able to use offers from foreign providers more cheaply and filter advertising calls in future.
The end of high roaming charges is the main objective of the partial revision of the Telecommunications Act, writes the Federal Council in a press release on Friday. "Swiss customers should be able to benefit from lower prices, better conditions and more choice in future." The setting of price caps "within the framework of international agreements is also possible in principle". In addition, the Federal Council should be given the authority to require providers to bill calls to the second and to round data consumption to a maximum of ten kilobytes. Currently, providers round these values up in some cases.
Not much happens
The Federal Council also wants to oblige Swiss providers in Switzerland to allow customers abroad to use roaming services from third-party providers. According to the Federal Council, these measures are necessary for various reasons. According to the explanatory report on the partial revision, competition in the mobile telephony sector in Switzerland is not very pronounced. "Despite price reductions, the price level in Switzerland is still very high compared to other countries."
No spam by phone
The government also wants to target unwanted advertising calls. To this end, it is planning various measures. For example, providers are to be obliged to filter such unsolicited calls with the consent of the customers called. The Federal Council also hopes that this will help to combat calls from abroad more efficiently. "People should only receive advertising calls that they actually want to receive." This should also apply to people without a telephone directory entry - and not only to those who currently enjoy the protection of an asterisk entry. The Federal Council does not want a blanket ban on unwanted calls. However, the administration should examine "whether an additional provision in the Criminal Code is needed to curb this".
Increased child protection
The practices of some telecoms providers who only offer bundled subscriptions continue to be a thorn in the government's side. Anyone who buys a television subscription often also has to purchase telephone or Internet services from the same provider. If the Federal Council has its way, all providers should also be required to offer the services individually in future. In addition, children and young people should be better protected from the dangers of telecommunications services. The Federal Council would like to retain the option of issuing corresponding protective provisions - especially if the industry's self-regulatory measures alone are not sufficient or there is a lack of corresponding efforts on the part of providers. In contrast, the Federal Council wants to abolish the general reporting obligation for providers. It writes that this has led to unequal treatment of domestic and foreign market participants. In future, therefore, only those who use radio frequencies or blocks of telephone numbers subject to licensing should be registered.
More rights for Comcom
In the consultation draft on the partial revision of the Telecommunications Act, the Federal Council also proposes strengthening the Federal Communications Commission (Comcom). In future, it should be able to intervene on its own initiative if it observes behavior that clearly contradicts regulation. Furthermore, the use of radio frequencies is to be liberalized and network access for market participants improved.
Long road to revision
In recent years, various parties have called for a revision of the Telecommunications Act. Consumer advocates in particular criticized the excessively lax regulations for telecoms providers and the excesses in the sector. However, the Federal Council saw no immediate need for action despite admitting the shortcomings. This has apparently changed. "The telecommunications market has developed extremely dynamically in recent years," is how the government justifies the proposed amendments that have now been presented. The preliminary draft is the first of two stages. Interested parties have until March 31, 2016 to comment on the draft. (SDA)
