Disclaimer: The
"interim ICTSB response" is a collection of opinions
which does not necessarily represent a consensus view of
the ICTSB
| Generic
Consumer Requirements in ICT standardization extracted from the ANEC report |
Interim ICTSB response |
|---|---|
| 1. Standardise presentation of information about geographical coverage area: Information should be presented in an unambiguous way to allow comparison and should be provided for both national and international coverage. Information should be based on geography and not on population. For mobile networks the information should cover roaming facilities. | http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml  Up-to-date coverage and roaming information is available. Do we really want to standardize the presentation of information? |
| 2. Standardise presentation of information for minimum level of service: Different providers offer different services, often with different names. To allow comparison of services there is a need to standardise terminology and functionality and to present a minimum level of service in a standardised format. | http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/ser_deep.shtml The terminology for services is standardized. Whether marketing uses this terminology or not is outside the reach of standardization. |
| 3. Ergonomic design of handsets, terminals and services: Ergonomic design can facilitate ease of use, reduce errors in use and assist use by people with impairments. Standards employing 'Design for All' principles should help achieve this. | Guides are available for a number of design issues. These guides address designers and implementers but not necessarily standards developers. Consequently, product standards do not address these design recommendations. |
| 4. Develop standards for adaptable user interfaces: Standards can be developed for coding on Smart Cards and terminals to allow the latter to be configured to individual preferences, functionality and to set up required services. | |
| 5. Standardise health warnings: Standards should include requirements for any health warnings that may prove necessary e.g. use of hand-held mobile phones and effects on pacemakers and hearing aids. | |
| 6. Standardise compatibility of use of terminals on networks: Standards should include information to ensure that consumers can clearly understand which terminals can be used for which services provided by the various different providers. | |
| 7. Standardise quality of service: Standards are necessary to define parameters necessary to determine the quality of service offered and how these can be measured for comparison purposes. Typical parameters cover terminal performance, end-to-end speech quality and intelligibility, connection times, service provision time, fault reporting, billing and customer service response times. | |
| 8. Standardise access to emergency services: Apart from standardisation of emergency numbers across Europe, standards should ensure that all terminals are available for emergency calls without use of a PIN and that a power reserve is available or a clear indication that the terminal is not in functional use. | |
| 9. Standardise interconnection arrangements: Standards should support interconnection between supplier networks to allow end-to-end calls to be set up over different supplier networks without restriction. | |
| 10. Billing: Costs should be transparent to consumers
and presented in ways based upon standardised presentation
of tariff information. |
|
| 11. Standards are required to assist the establishment and development of directory services so any fixed/mobile user can find the number of another user regardless of supplier or network used. This factor is becoming increasingly important as the number of suppliers increase. | |
| 12. Battery information: For any terminal device using battery power for operation, a standardised method of indicating low-battery status is required. Data sheets should be clearly distinguished with individual calls clearly priced. | What does have to do with batteries? |
| 13. Connection plugs and sockets: All future standards works should include information to encourage use of standard plugs and sockets on terminals to allow use across Europe with or without special adaptors. | |
| 14. CLI suppression: All terminals fixed and mobile should allow suppression of CLI (Calling Line Identification) facility as a standard feature. | |
| 15. Common directory services should be available at the point of sale and include performance data such as typical usage time, recharge time, weight, lifetime with information presented in a non-technical language. |