In line with the National Telecom Regulatory Authority’s (NTRA) strategy to support the user rights and ensure providing high-quality services in Egypt’s market, NTRA issued its report on telecom user complaints for 2023.The report presents the most important indicators with respect to landline, mobile, fixed internet and mobile set complaints. It also presents the rate and time of response to such complaints post escalation to NTRA.

NTRA actually receives telecom-user complaints against operators via the call center on (155). In Addition, it has recently provided new e-channels to facilitate communication with users and develop non-traditional methods for receiving complaints; such as, My NTRA App, NTRA’s website, e-mail address as well as instant messaging apps like WhatsApp. Therefore, 322 033 complaints were received during 2023 as a result of such procedures. Operators’ response rate to complaints during the same period reached 90%, whereas response time was 2.6 days in average. The following figures are presented being the most important information conveyed by the report:

• 322 033 complaints were escalated to NTRA against telecom operators including; 126 521 mobile complaints by 39%, 100 654 fixed internet complaints by 32%, 91 396 landline complaints by 28% and 3462 mobile set complaints by 1%.
• 81% of complaints were received via the call center (155), whereas 8% of complaints was raised via WhatsApp and 7% was registered on NTRA’s website. It is worth noting that 4% of complaints was raised via My NTRA.
• 44% of complaints was received in Greater Cairo and 27% in Delta. Meanwhile, 18% of complaints was raised by users in Upper Egypt, 8% by users in Alexandria and 3% by users in the Suez Canal cities.

Complaints regarding mobile set, mobile, fixed internet service and landline services are presented in details as follow: 

First: Mobile set complaints

The overall number of complaints escalated by mobile set owners to NTRA against dealerships were 3462 during 2023. Meanwhile, the response rate to complaints reached 100% with an average response time of 1.5 days. Most importantly, complaints were raised about problem re-occurrence by 49%, poor technical support by 26% and refusal to replace product by 25%. On the other hand, the average time taken for resolving complaints per dealership was as follow; Safi by 0.58 days, Ro’ya by 0.76 days, Sky by 1.18 days, Raya by 2.17 days and I2 by 2.22 days.

Secondly, mobile-user complaints against operators:

Number of mobile complaints was 119 per 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 95% with an average response time of 0.35 days

• Vodafone: Number of complaints escalated against Vodafone was 119/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate and the average response time scored 96% and 0.06 days respectively post escalation. Most of these complaints were about mobile wallets by 29%, billing and credit by 20%, service disconnection by 18%. Mobile Number Portability Service (MNP) by 12%, and subscription to service without notification by 6%.
• Orange: It was complained against by 163 complaints/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas response rate to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 95%. Average response time had also been 0.75 days. Furthermore, most of these complaints were about billing and credit by 27%, marketing offers by 18%, MNP service by 17%, service disconnection by 13% and subscription to service without notification by 8%.
• Etisalat: Number of complaints raised against Etisalat was 80/ 100 thousand subscribers. The rate of response to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 94% and the average response rate had been 0.15 days. Furthermore, most of these complaints were about MNP service by 29%, service disconnection by 20%, mobile wallets by 18%, billing and credit by 16%, and customer subscription to services without notification by 4%.
• Number of complaints raised against WE was 100/ 100 thousand subscribers. Meanwhile, the rate of response to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 97% and the average time of response had been 0.45 days. Moreover, most of these complaints were about service disconnection by 35%, MNP service by 20%, billing and credit by 16%, mobile wallets by 9% and customer service by 9%.

Thirdly, fixed internet-user complaints against operators:

Number of fixed internet complaints was 926/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 94% with an average response time of 1.94 days.

• Vodafone: Number of complaints escalated against Vodafone was 1179/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate and the average response time scored 98% and 0.17 days respectively post escalation. Most of these complaints were about service quality by 39%, billing and credit service by 18%, inability to cancel subscription by 14%, line reserved without notification by 11%, and customer service by 7%.
• Orange: It was complained against by 2197 complaints/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas response rate to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 99%. Average response time had also been 0.17 days. Furthermore, most of these complaints were about service quality by 46%, billing and credit by 25%, inability to cancel subscription by 14%, line reserved without notification by 6% and marketing offers by 3%.
• Etisalat: Number of complaints raised against Etisalat was 1374/ 100 thousand subscribers. The rate of response to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 99% and the average response rate had been 0.09 days. Furthermore, most of these complaints were about service quality by 45%, billing and credit by 18%, inability to cancel subscription by 9%, line reserved without notification by 8%, and being previously registered to service under another name by 7%.
• Number of complaints raised against WE was 808/ 100 thousand subscribers. Meanwhile, the rate of response to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 93% and the average time of response had been 2.65 days. Moreover, most of these complaints were about service quality by 63%, billing and credit by 17%, line reserved without notification by 10%, customer service by 6%, as well as inability to cancel subscription by 1%.

Fourthly: Landline- user complaints:

Landline complaints scored a number of 733 / 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate of complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 77% and the average response time had been 3.8 days. Landline complaints were most importantly about breakdowns by 75%, service quality by 13%, delayed activation of service by 7%, and customer service as well as billing and credit service by 2% each. Furthermore, complaints were geographically distributed as follow: 53% in Greater Cairo, 24% in Delta, 15% in Upper Egypt, 6% in Alexandria and 2% in the Suez Canal area.

Amounts refunded to eligible users

A total number of EGP 4.3 million were refunded to eligible users by operators during 2023, after the eligibility of such users to receive reparations had been proven by NTRA. The majority of amounts refunded were for mobile wallet complaints by 77%.

Measures taken by NTRA to uphold user rights after their complaints are monitored:

Fines of EGP 2.3 million were imposed on mobile operators during 2023

2.3 million pound-fines were imposed by NTRA on mobile operators during 2023 for trespassing the standards of response to mobile users’ complaints.

Violations to user-complaint standards were reduced by 48% during 2023

Seamless coordination with operators, with respect to receiving and responding to complaints, resulted in their compliance with the criteria of receiving and resolving complaints, consequently leading to a decrease in violations by 48% during 2023 in comparison to 2022.

*155# unified code used for 79 million times to inquire about, cancel entertainment services

Since the service was launched in January 2021, the free unified code (*155#) was used for 79 million times to inquire about or cancel entertainment services such as, songs, news, games, etc. and for about 36 million times in 2023.  It’s worth noting that NTRA previously launched the unified code to reduce unfavorable practices like subscription to services without notifying customers or against their will.

Users changed fixed internet providers for 3.5 million times since rules of shifting fixed internet providers were applied

NTRA issued regulations to facilitate the process of shifting fixed internet providers, while transactions of subscription cancellation and subscription have come up to 1.2 million and 2.3 million respectively. This actually contributed to reducing the number of complaints against fixed internet providers by 85%.

2 million transactions for Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

NTRA established rules to facilitate MNP process by issuing regulations to ease up MNP during 24 hours. The number of users who utilized MNP service reached 800 thousand during 2023, to form a total number of 2 million, with a 35%-increase than 2022.