Mobiles, internet and home phones — if you use any or all of these a national telecommunications survey needs you!

Griffith University’s Centre for Credit and Consumer Law (CCCL) is conducting a national research project which aims to ultimately improve the experience of telecommunications users.

Members of the community are invited to share their experiences by completing an online survey.

CCCL Director Nicola Howell said the ‘Telco Fees and Charges: Trends and Implications for Consumers’ project was funded by the federal government Telecommunications Research Grants Program and aimed to identify trends and issues for future policy-making.

“The research is being conducted to better understand the experiences, views and priorities users have in relation to telecommunication fees and charges, as there’s not a lot of public information available on how these have changed,” Ms Howell said.

The project is expected to provide indirect benefits to consumers across Australia by identifying on-going trends and implications for regulation and policy in telecommunications.

“We’re asking what services people use, how much they spend, whether they’ve had any extra or unexpected fees or charges, why, how they reacted, who they talked to if anyone and the outcome,” Ms Howell said.

“Most people know someone who’s had a bad experience with a telecommunications provider, or weren’t happy with the service they received, so this research will help them voice their concerns and have those views fed into the policy process.

“But we’re also interested to know if consumers feel that the fees and charges are reasonable and clearly disclosed, and how fees and charges have changed over time.”

The project will also collect data on fees and charges from a range of public and private sources to complement the survey findings.

The online survey is accessible at www.griffith.edu.au/centre/cccl/ until April 4. People without internet at home are encouraged to access the web through their local library. If people experience problems with the survey please contact the CCCL on 07 3735 4211.

The results of the project will be posted at www.griffith.edu.au/centre/cccl by July 2008.