WorldxChange has quit the Telecommunications Carriers Forum and the ISP’s director, Paul Clarkin, is calling for a strategic approach to how the industry is governed.
Clarkin, who is a founding member of the TCF, says his company resigned from the organisation three weeks ago. He says he is still working through the process of leaving the Forum and so can’t comment in any detail about his reasons for quitting. The company’s logo has been removed from the TCF website.
When asked if he had signed up to the revised customer complaints scheme, he told Computerworld he had not seen the revised code of practice which governs it.
He says in the past WorldxChange has objected to the scheme because it wasn’t compulsory for the 200 or so ISPs in New Zealand.
“Our long held belief is if you want an effective customer complaints scheme, everyone that plays in the industry, including all these small ISPs etc, everybody should be bound by the same code. There should be some sort of legislation, ie compulsory membership, compulsory access to the code, whatever,” Clarkin says.
“Our whole industry suffers from the lack of a strategic plan. I’ve never seen one and I’ve been doing this for a long time.
“There needs to be some sort of legislation that binds all parties that covers not only this code but a whole bunch of others.”
TCF chief executive David Stone says he has not had the opportunity to discuss with Clarkin his reasons for leaving the organisation. Stone says that although Clarkin is no longer a member he is still participating in industry discussions. When Computerworld contacted Stone by phone to get comment on WorldxChange’s departure, he was attending the same meeting as Clarkin.