Close to 15 percent or 29 of all consumer complaints escalated to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) during the quarter ended September 2024 related to fraudulent calls and text messages at a time digital scams have been on the rise.
In its quarterly review report, the regulator said it received 200 complaints, a 28.2 percent jump from the 156 received during a similar period last year. The number captures grievances against telcos escalated to the authority after the failure of resolution by the respective service providers.
Other rampant anti-consumer breaches during the period included those relating to broadcasting, which totalled 23, while unfair trading practices and confidentiality breaches made up 22 complaints each.
Others included unauthorised subscription (11), billing (12), postal/courier (14), service termination (nine), frequency interference (six) and service interruption (five).
The CA is mandated to protect consumers from poor service by operators and it monitors quality delivered by telecom firms to ensure their standards meet the set parameters.
During the year ended June 2023, for instance, the CA Quality of Service report showed that only Safaricom surpassed the 80 percent performance threshold after it posted a 90 percent score on the key performance indicators.
According to the report, Airtel and Telkom Kenya attained 79 percent and 65 percent, respectively, translating to an industry average of 72.4 percent, a significant drop when put against the average of 82.3 percent attained in the year to June 2022 and 75.5 percent the previous year.
“The Communications Authority of Kenya has issued warning notices to Airtel and Telkom Kenya for non-compliance with the quality of service provided to consumers on their mobile telephony networks,” said CA in a statement following the report’s publishing.
Out of the 200 complaints forwarded to the regulator during the quarter under review, 171 were resolved while 29 were pending as of the close of September, translating to an 85.5 percent score.
