Complaints to the Telecommunications User Care Office were reduced again during 2021

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, through the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, has published today the Report of the Office of Telecommunications and Digital Services User Support (OAUT) of 2021.

The document indicates that the office received 57,539 inquiries last year, 13% less than in 2020. These data confirm the downward trend in recent years.

The OAUT also received 21,941 claims throughout 2021, 2.7% less than the previous year, and resolved 23,003 (given that some are appealed administratively and there are two resolutions), 4% more than in 2020. Of these resolved disputes, almost two thirds, 63.4% (13,910), were resolved favourably for users and 16.1% (3,532), for operators.

20.5% of the remaining claims were resolved without a favourable or unfavourable ruling, as some were not considered due to defects in form, by the claimant’s resignation or failure to comply with any requested requirement.

More than half of the complaints were filed electronically, confirming the trend initiated five years ago. The OAUT is responsible for informing and serving telecommunications users, as well as managing their claims against operators. ​

Main Grounds for Claim

The report notes that most disputes in 2021 were related to converged services (which combine fixed and mobile communication). More than 58 per cent of the complaints filed fell into this category, in matters relating mainly to billing for services (43.6 per cent) and difficulties during contract losses (27.9 per cent).

In the field of mobile communications, these two categories of complaints were also the most numerous. 27% of the disputes were about invoicing and 26.8%, about problems in the management of contract losses, which increased by 5.7 percentage points.

In the case of fixed communications, the highest percentage of complaints were made by users who had difficulties in processing the withdrawal of their contracts. Specifically, 35.1% of the controversies, which recorded an increase of about 6 percentage points more than in 2020.