Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni

2. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni DISABLED USERS PROTECTION in the Electronic Communications market by the Italian NRA

3. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni In 2009 the Italian NRA (AGCOM) approved some rules to assure suitable quality of the customer assistance services made available from the providers of electronic communication services. The targets of the resolution are fixed and mobile telephony operators. The rules are going to be extended to Pay-TV operators, whilst the small ISP are, at moment, not involved. Agcom Resolution n. 79/09/CSP

4. The main objectives of the resolution Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni • ➨ To guarantee to the users the right to get a suitable and satisfactory assistance • ➨To get a progressive improvement of the quality of the service • To assure the usability of the service to the disabled users (deaf people).

5. Rules foreseen for assistance of deaf customers Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni • ➨ Call centers should anyway guarantee the access the inbound service from the deaf users, by use of suitable relay service technologies • ➨Following relay services should be made available: • a) Chat and SMS, providing real time answers to the user request; • b) Fax and e-mail, providing postponed answers (anyway to be provided within two hours)

6. Fall-back solution for assistance of deaf customers Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni • ➨ Whenever either SMS or Fax or e-mail service is not available, the contact with the deaf user should be additionally guaranteed from the operator, by interfacing call center with the so-called “bridge-service” • ➨The deaf user is connected to the brige-service by a special terminal • ➨The bridge-service is provided either from the operator itself or from some specialized association of deaf people. In Italy association providing this service is the most important one: the ENS (Ente Nazionale per la protezione e l’assistenza dei Sordi)

7. Agcom Resolution n. 514/07/Cons Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni In 2007 AGCOM approved some innovative rules for the protection of disabled users, deaf and blind, which marked a breaking point if compared to traditional settings.

8. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni Why the new rules broke with the past The most important news is that all the operators had to contribute for the provisioning of specific services at better conditions for deaf and blind people, and this, therefore, outside the scope of Universal Service.

9. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni Disabled users can choose among all the new technologies Agcom believed that only in this way the "right of choice" for disabled users could be effectively protected, to fulfill their equality with other users.

10. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni The right of choice … Particularly, deaf and blind users must not be obliged to choose among the services falling within the Universal Service to obtain favourable economic conditions.

11. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni In other words, deaf and blind users have the right – as all the other users – to choose between all market operators and among all the available services (fixed, mobile, Internet), to find those that fit the best their communication needs. … and the equality with the other users

12. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni The procedure for the approval of the new rules was long and complex and it involved, in addition to the operators, some of the Associations representing disabled categories concerned, who provided valuable information on the practical difficulties that deaf and blind users face in the use of communications services. The contribute of the Associations

13. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni Deaf users have difficulties using voice services, so AGCOM provided on fixed lines: exemption of payment of the fee of the residential universal service; on mobile lines: all operators must prepare each year a specific offer for providing at least 50 free sms per day, on net and off net, and the best prices for all data services. The new rules for deaf users

14. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni Blind users have difficulties in connecting to the Internet (for which they often use text-to-speech systems, requiring long connection times), so all operators, no matter what type of offer and speed of navigation chosen by the blind users, must recognise 90 free hours of Internet access per month or 50% discount on Internet connection in case of flat or semi-flat offers. The new rules for blind users

15. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni Tomake deaf and blind users aware of their rights, AGCOM dediced that operators must cooperate with their representative Associations to create forms of advertising of concessions and general information adapted to the needs of understandingof deaf and blind users. How to inform the users about the facilities

16. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni How to get the facilities Moreover, to facilitate the exercise of these rights for deaf and blind users, AGCOM established that to obtain the favorable conditions users only have to send a medical certification with modules made available from the operators.

17. Ufficio Qualità, Servizio Universale e Rapporti con le Associazioni Since the adoption of the new rules Agcom works with the Associations that constantly report applicationissues or violations of the rules, so giving a valuable contribution to the effectiveness of the protection. *** In 2009, AGCOM obtained a prizeby the Ente nazionale sordi for the effective protection that resultsfromthese rules. The supervision on the new rules