HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti yesterday launched the Telecom Complaints Management System of the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA), at the Qatar IT Conference and Exhibition 2019 (Qitcom 2019).
The new system aims at automating all the processes related to resolving telecom consumers’ complaints and is supported by the Government Cloud-Services (Sadeem), the authority has said in a statement.
The launch event was attended by Abdi Ashur Hassan, Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Technology of Somalia; Mohamed Ali al-Mannai, president of the CRA; Lana Khalaf, country manager, Microsoft Qatar; Dr Ahmed Salman Ali al-Sulaiti, CEO, Qatar National Broadband Network, (Qnbn); and Mohamed al-Emadi, chief operation officer at malomatia.
The system brings all stakeholders together: the CRA, Government Contact Centre that manages the CRA’s hotline (103), Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar. The stakeholders will manage and resolve telecom consumers’ complaints based on CRA’s Complaint Resolution Process, Telecommunications Law, Telecom Consumer Protection Policy and a set of regulations.
“We are pleased to launch the Telecom Complaints Management System, as we constantly work to ensure the provision of technical solutions that support government entities to accelerate their digital transformation, in order to realise the integrated and connected government, which is in line with the Qatar Digital Government 2020 strategy. The Sadeem platform will support the CRA by accelerating the process of its digital transformation, accelerating access to users and increasing the efficiency of the provided services,” said HE al-Sulaiti.
“The CRA ensures to balance the rights of consumers with the needs of service providers. The new system will support our efforts to protect consumers and ensure the provision of smart, innovative and high-quality services. The system is a key part of the CRA’s strategy to use technological tools to provide a better experience to the stakeholders and consumers,” noted al-Mannai.
Managing the life cycle of consumers’ complaints and inquiries will become easier, as stakeholders will manage all the related activities through the system and they will be able to track complaints all the way from submission to resolution. The system will enable stakeholders to follow up and update consumers about the status of their complaints or inquiries in real time, or even request them to send documents that support their complaints, the statement explained.
“The Qatar Digital Government 2020 strategy thrives to enhance customer experiences through greater access to government services, leading to better outcomes for the nation,” added Khalaf. “And the Telecom Complaints Management System speaks directly to this effort.” The CRA will also be able to generate related reports easily, which will help identify trends and work with service providers to reduce the future occurrence of complaints. The system will support the authority to provide an accurate, transparent and fair resolution for both parties, as all consumers’ records will be available in one private and safe place and can be retrieved upon request.
The next phase will integrate different channels in the new system, such as social media, interactive voice response, the CRA website and mobile app.
Under the CRA’s telecom complaint resolution process, consumers with a complaint are free to approach the authority if their complaint lodged directly to their service provider about a mobile service disconnection remains open or unresolved for 48 hours, or 72 hours in case of fixed-line disconnection, and also if the complaint is not related to a service disconnection and remains unresolved for 30 calendar days or if the complaint is closed at any time and they were dissatisfied with the offered resolution.