The Commission has observed a rapid uptake and use of mobile telephony and internet access services since 2009 but there have also been high levels of consumer dissatisfaction with local service elements of telecommunications, particularly from time to time.
The Commission maintains its policy of assisting complainants to address full formed complaints to their service provider, as the first step towards resolving individual problems. This feedback from the market directly, is an important part of the competitive process since in many cases, customers have a choice of supplier. The Commission receives a high level of cooperation from all service providers in addressing and resolving individual complaints. The occasions of generalised outages or poor data speeds are often the result of technical problems or bandwidth capacity constraints outside the local operators’ control.
The Commission continues to monitor and collect data on the quality of handsets sold in the local market by retailers who are not telecommunications service providers, because of concerns that some devices may be illegal copies. While less expensive than the real thing available through Our Telekom and Bmobile, some of the cheap devices may not be fully functional for very long.
International Affairs
The Commission represents Solomon Islands in international and regional information sharing and policy development projects and at international telecommunications events. Representation is required at the International Telecommunications Union, and the Asia Pacific Telecommunity.