New rules for fixed line, mobile, broadband contracts from March 2010

Consumers who apply for or renew contract for fixed line, mobile or broadband service cannot be locked into the contract for more than 24 months.

And consumers who sign on to contracts longer than three months and who terminate their contracts before the end of their contract period will no longer have to pay fixed early termination charges. Instead, they will see these charges decrease over time on a month—by—month basis as they serve out their contract.

These are part of the new guidelines rolled out by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), which seek to ensure that industry practices will be more reasonable and fair.

Under the new guidelines, operators offering telco services must also ensure that early termination charges do not include costs which they can avoid when the consumer terminates his service.

Such costs could include back—end administrative and operational costs that the operator would not have to incur once the customer terminates the service.

The new guidelines were prompted by consumers’ concerns that contract periods might be becoming unduly long, and early termination charges excessively high, which together hinder them from terminating the service and switching between operators.