See summary for mobile market in connection with above graph below after the Oftel publication introduction.

Europe :This Oftel publication provides a broad picture of the level of complaints received by Oftel between 1 April and 30 September 2003.

The graphs highlight the relative performance of the telephone companies and Internet service providers named.

Oftel believes that publishing this information provides an important incentive to telephone companies and Internet service providers to improve the quality of service they offer to their customers.

Whilst individual consumers may also find the publication of interest, our aim is to put data in the public domain in an accessible way. Oftel believes that other sources of information offer more relevant information to help consumer choice. Examples of such sources are:

Oftel’s Consumer guides quality of service Comparable Performance Indicators (CPIs) (www.cpi.org.uk); telephone bill comparisons web sites (click here for details of the Oftel Price Assurance Standard), and individual company literature which will detail services and tariff packages.

The complaints data is presented in the form of three graphs:

Fixed line market: company complaints per 1,000 customers (business and residential combined) per six months; and

Mobile market: company complaints per 1,000 customers (business and residential combined) per six months - see graph above and supporting data below.

Internet service provision market: ISP complaints per 1,000 customers (business and residential, broadband and narrowband combined) per six months.

Accompanying the company specific data, to give an overall context, is information on the issues most complained about for the period in question.

Summary For Mobile Market

Mobile market: company complaints per 1,000 customers (business and residential combined) per six months.

This relates to complaints about all services accessed from a mobile telephone.

Oftel received 552 complaints about Hutchison 3G ("3"), but we were unable to obtain customer base information from this company.

The total complaints about the mobile market included in this publication are:

19,950 (previous publication = 18,000)

The Top 3 issues during the period were:

1) Company ignores customer's complaint (6% of total complaints)
Example : "On three occasions he was promised a call back from a manager, but he never received one."

2) Concerning tariff/options package (6% of total complaints)
Example : "Consumer complained that he had changed the price plans on both his phones, but he had not been receiving the discounts that he believed he should be."

3) Problems with the handset (5% of total complaints)
Example : "Consumer is unhappy that the handset does not stay charged as the battery keeps running down quickly. Also the hands-free kit does not work with the phone"

The UK's Guardian newspaper reported " Fledgling mobile phone network 3 was dealt another blow yesterday as official figures showed that Oftel, the telecoms watchdog, received 14 times more complaints about its service over the last six months than about any of its competitors.

The figures also showed that Orange, which in the past has prided itself on being the UK's best network, lost its top position to Vodafone. Oftel received 0.2 complaints per 1,000 customers about O2, Orange and T-Mobile and only 0.1 complaint per 1,000 about Vodafone".