[kictanet] Day 7-10:-Available eCommunication Strategies for Regulators

[Chanuka Wattegama]

Dear All,

 

Extremely sorry to barge in this later stage, but I had no other option
because the past few days were exceptionally busy.

 

Let me share some of the useful findings from the study Benchmarking
National Telecom Regulatory Authority websites of Asia-Pacific Region  For
those who are not familiar, This study systematically benchmarked National
Telecom Regulator websites in the Asia-Pacific region, evaluating their
usefulness to telecom operators, investors, consumers, researchers and even
the general public. Each website is awarded marks for the availability of
information and features that are useful to the regulator's stakeholders. A
total of 27 websites are evaluated from a region that includes 62 economies.
(More details:
http://www.lirneasia.net/projects/completed-projects/regulatory-web-survey)

 

1.       For the study I have considered 62 independent Asia Pacific
economies (Hong Kong could have been the only exception, but that needs to
be taken into account because of its independent regulatory environment,
which cannot be put in the same category as China.) The definition used for
'Asia' was the broadest that can be thought of because it included Middle
East and Central Asia as well. Out of that 62, only 33 NRAs had web sites.
(This was in 2004, the situation is a bit better now) Anyway the bottom line
is only 60-70% of the NRAs have some sort of websites. This raises the
question how far the NRAs have thought about communications.

 

2.       If my memory serves me right I could not benchmark  NRA sites
(Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and Yemen) because then they did
not have English versions. So the number has to be limited to 27. (I do not
say ever NRA should have an English version, but this was a practical
difficulty that we could not avoid) Even out of that 27, there were many
NRAs that had not given any information relevant to end consumers. The
limited information gives perhaps the mandate and the top officers at NRA.
One NRA website even had a page for foreign tourists.

 

3.       Then there were sites that provided consumer information to levels
varying from basic minimum to very good. There was one site that reproduced
every customer complaint and monitored the progress. I am not sure whether
we expect NRAs to do to that level. There were also some sites (eg.
Singapore, Malaysia) that provided a gamut of information including
technical details many consumers might not even follow. Anyway, I do not
think this is a bad practice. We do not need everybody's grandmother to
understand this information, but the fact that they are in public domain
implies that all consumers (including grandmothers!) receive a better
service.

 

4.       Not many NRAs were worried about presenting the information in a
language understandable to the end consumers. (The six countries I have
mentioned in No. 2 were exceptions) So even if the information is available
it is not sure whether the consumers can take any use of it. We also have to
take into account that some of these countries have extremely low Internet
penetration levels. So we come to the same problems again. The content is
there, but can the consumers realistically access that?

 

These observations raise the important question how far NRAs can use
websites as a tool to interact with the end consumers. I do not try to
provide an answer right now. May be I can give a better answer at GK3.

 

Then the question how NRAs can improve their communications using e-tools. I
have some good new here. After publishing the survey results some NRAs have
taken serious efforts to improve their websites. India and Bangladesh are
two examples. I know both these countries have benefitted from the survey
results at best. I do not see any reason why others could not.

 

Think this is adequate for the moment. I hope I have brought in the Asian
dimension to the discussion. 

 

Best Rgds,

Chanuka Wattegama

LIRNEasia

www.lirneasia.net 

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