Consultation: Review of ADR in the telecoms sector

Alternative Dispute Resolution (‘ADR’) is an option available to telecoms customers when they are unhappy with the outcome of their complaint with a provider, or if their complaint remains unresolved after eight weeks. Under these conditions, customers may raise their complaint to an ADR scheme, which is an independent body that carries out an impartial assessment of their unresolved complaint, free of charge.

Ofcom currently approves two ADR schemes for the telecoms sector: Communications Ombudsman (CO) and the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS). We are required to keep our approval of ADR schemes under review and assess whether the schemes are continuing to meet our approval criteria.

We have considered, as part of our review, whether the current timeframe before consumers can access ADR remains effective. Under our current rules, consumers can take their complaint to ADR eight weeks after they complained, or before that, if it reaches deadlock. We believe that the current timeframe may not be giving all consumers sufficiently prompt access to ADR, in cases where their provider cannot resolve their complaint. Therefore, we are proposing to reduce the timeframe before consumers can access ADR from eight weeks to six weeks.

We have carried out our review of the ADR schemes and have found that the schemes are working well, but we consider that some improvements can be made and the targets we set for the schemes to meet can be strengthened and updated to be more in line with current practices and consumer expectations. We are therefore proposing to:

• reapprove both CO and CISAS, with some minor improvements that we propose the schemes should implement, and
• strengthen the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) we set for the schemes to meet, while keeping them within the bounds of current performance.

Taken together, these proposals will ensure that the ADR schemes continue to work well for consumers, while ensuring that our rules are effective in facilitating access to ADR for consumers.

We propose for the new timeframe in relation to access to ADR to come into effect six months after the publication of our final decision, and for the new KPIs for the ADR schemes to come into effect three months after the publication of our final decision.

We are consulting on our proposals until 12 March 2025 and will aim to publish our final decision by summer 2025.

Responding to this consultation

Please submit responses using the response form no later than 5pm 12 March 2025.