Impossible choices: complexity and dissatisfaction in the telecommunications consumer-service provider relationship

Abstract

While competition and technological innovation in the telecommunications sector have brought an ever-expanding array of choices to consumers, it has come at the cost of a proliferating confusion of features, options, pricing and usage monitoring arrangements. 1 Broadband-enabling and the trend towards converged devices with software-based applications, such as the iPhone and other `smart¿ devices, add further complications and extend the web of interrelationships between networks, devices, software and content. Telecommunications consumers now confront a heretofore unimaginable level of complexity, and often feel overwhelmed by the volume of information available for them to use in making purchase and service decisions. The increasing volume of complaints reported by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman is causing considerable concern among consumer bodies, regulators and the industry itself.