On 8 May 2011 I had written: Who is blocking Internet access, acting against government policy?
More details can be read there, where I had also said:
I share this situation, because what happens is a breakdown of law – of blatant actions against government policy which has been stated by two Ministers of the Royal Government of Cambodia.
The people who limit free Internet access are
- acting against fundamental rights: the access to information,
- they do things for which there is no legal basis,
- they make some ISPs supply deficient services to customers who have paid for full services.
There are institutions in charge of monitoring whether or not the law is observed or not – and to take action when there are deviations.
My role is different – I am just a consumer. So I had written to Online:
“Since several days, we experience that several web sites are not accessible… I am informed that the same sites which we cannot access with the Online connection are available through other ISPs in Cambodia.
As this situation continues now already for several days and you are aware of it, it is surprising that you did not rectify this irregularity.
Would you please inform us about your response to us, your paying customers, who suffer from problems at your company, with interventions that do not affect other ISPs in the country. Will you offer a financial compensation for service not delivered for the period of time of this blocking? When will you reestablish to deliver the proper service for which we are paying?”
More than one week later, nothing had happened. So I sent another letter. Again no reaction. Then I went to the Online office. After staff had discussed the mail for a while in the background, another person from the administration took the seat at the customers counter: Apologies for not having answered, and the promise that I would get an answer very soon.
Again waiting, in vain.
So I went again to the Online office towards the end of May, to cancel my account.
“But why do you want to cancel your account?”
I pointed to the unanswered letters and the not fulfilled promise that I would get a written response. In order to terminate the contract, I had to fill in a form which again had the question why the account is to be canceled. I said again that I am not interested to maintain a contract, where I get a limited service for full payment – where Online withholds some services which are freely available with other ISPs in the country. And in addition, I wrote into the form that I am not interested to regularly pay fees to a company where the business leadership does not care – for weeks – to respond to communication from a long term customer.
So I had done, what I had described as a possibility already on 8 May 2011:
Fortunately, consumers can make choices, by selecting ISPs that deliver reliable services within the framework of government policy and the law.
And others don’t do that.