Congested networks may lead to carriers charging for incomplete overseas calls

A high volume of calls to countries with unreliable phone systems can in rare situations lead to carriers erroneously charging customers for incomplete overseas phone calls. “It would be pretty rare that a client faces such a situation, but in the few cases when it might happen, the international traffic is one of the factors that could impact a call. One other factor could be the various technologies used abroad,” Bell Canada spokeswoman Marie-Eve Francoeur said by email. In December the Canadian Press reported that some Bell customers may have been charged for overseas phone calls that had never gotten through. The glitch may occur when a telecommunications service provider's network is overwhelmed with a high traffic of phone calls, such as on a holiday or following a natural disaster. It can also happen when a call is directed to a country that has an unreliable phone system. When either of these events occur, in rare cases some of the calls may not go through and become “lost” in the system. When such a call ends up in limbo, a carrier's systems cannot recognize that communication was never established and users are automatically charged for up to a few minutes' use. “It's important to keep in mind the context around the volume of calls—billions of calls are processed on Bell's network every year. The possibility of a call, either local or international, not being completed is very rare. We have a 99.9999%+ call completion rate,” Francoeur said. “International calls are a complex process involving many international players employing varying technologies, some with relatively outdated systems.” Francoeur said that it's up to the customer to alert Bell of the mistake. “Bell always invites clients to look at their monthly statements and contact us should they have any questions. Due to various technologies employed by other players around the world, if our systems get the technical confirmation that a call has been connected, we rely on that confirmation,” Francoeur said. Bell will credit customers for the calls after analyzing that the charge is truly the result of an error. Telus Corp. spokesman Jim Johannsson said in an interview the company only begins charging overseas phone calls once the person at the other end has picked up the receiver. Johannsson said he isn't aware of Telus charging for any incomplete calls. “We haven't seen any number of complaints coming through about that,” he said. “But if it did, our policy on that would be that if somebody gets charged for a call that wasn't completed properly or was never made, they just call us and let us know, and we'll take it off their bill.” Johannsson added that networks are growing increasingly complex, which can lead to a number of small glitches when completing calls. But overall Johannsson said networks are reliable. Francoeur said Bell uses the same billing method as Telus, and noted that all carriers can erroneously charge customers for incomplete calls. Rogers Communications Inc. did not comment Thursday. In its report, the Canadian Press said that three Bell customer service agents had reacted differently when approached with such a call—one offered a partial credit, another refused to offer any credit, and the third said Bell was obligated to charge for the call to cover a tariff collected by foreign carriers when a call is connected to their network. Francoeur said the billing of incomplete calls has now been brought to the attention of its agents. John Lawford, counsel with consumer group the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), said he had not heard complaints about carriers charging for incomplete overseas calls, but said he wouldn't be surprised if telcos that experienced this glitch didn't fully credit customers billed for incomplete calls. “They should have a system that you're not billing until the connection gets right through and they can verify it somehow.” Lawford said carriers should undertake measures to ensure they aren't needlessly charging customers. “If there's a group of people that are trying to call Pakistan after the flood or Haiti after the earthquake, I think it's up to to know that that's likely to happen and that the billing system is not going to match up,” he said. “ aren't changing the system to address what they think is a small problem or a 'not all the time' problem, but the consumers are bearing all the risks and the costs of it.” “I don't think it's fair to people that they're bearing the cost of ,” he said. Lawford said charging for incomplete calls creates a difficult situation for consumers because they have to “be on their toes” to notice they were charged for a call that ended up never going through. “First you have to catch it, then you have to complain and then you probably have to go the CCTS ,” he said. Long-distance calls are unregulated by the CRTC, and a customer wishing to escalate a complaint about such a problem must approach the CCTS. CCTS commissioner Howard Maker said by email he recollects that the body has heard one or two cases relating to the billing of incomplete long-distance calls. Maker said the CCTS advises customers making overseas phone calls to hang up immediately if they get “dead air” to avoid unwarranted charges. kfournier@thewirereport.ca

Congested networks may lead to carriers charging for incomplete overseas calls

News | January 13, 2011

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