TeliaSonera not to compensate private customers for e-mail problems
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The telecommunications service provider TeliaSonera says that it will offer monetary compensation to its corporate clients for lengthy breaks in e-mail services during the Easter holidays.
However, the company does not plan to compensate private customers who experienced the same problems.
The company notes that corporate clients pay separate fees for the use of e-mail, and that next month’s e-mail bill will therefore be lower.
TeliaSonera feels that private clients are not entitled to monetary restitution, because its e-mail is a free service available to its private broadband subscribers.
The notion put forward by TeliaSonera that e-mail is an add-on that private clients get for free has raised some questions.
Päivi Seppälä, deputy director of the Finnish Consumer Agency, pointed out that the availability of e-mail as part of a broadband package is an important reason why many people decide to subscribe to a broadband service.
"A central mental image is that it makes it possible to surf the Internet, and to have a personal e-mail", Seppälä says.
Under new legislation, significant breaks in communications services must be compensated to the tune of EUR 15 for each incipient week. Seppälä says that the Consumer Agency will discuss the matter with TeliaSonera.
The technical problems during the weekend were caused by a server malfunction, leading to a jam in the system.
The problems began at about noon on Friday, and continued until the early hours of Sunday. Other use of the Internet was unaffected.
E-mail problems caused by repair work on the system continued until Tuesday. About one in ten clients were unable to use e-mail on Tuesday afternoon for about an hour.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 11.4.2007 - TODAY |
 TeliaSonera not to compensate private customers for e-mail problems
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