When you move to a new home, you may expect your existing fixed telephone or broadband service providers to continue providing services to you at your new address, especially if your existing fixed-term contract has not expired yet. Nevertheless, your service provider may not be able to provide service to your new address (e.g. the new address may be outside the network coverage of your existing service provider). In such case, you may need to switch to other service providers but doing so may incur early termination charge payable to your existing service provider.

Under the Industry Code of Practice for Telecommunications Service Contracts ("Industry Code"), consumers will be better protected. In summary,

  1. Service providers are required to use its reasonable endeavours to relocate the service provisioning.
  2. Customer has the right to choose to continue using the service at the original location or terminate the contract if the service provider cannot provide the service at the relocated premises due to the absence of network coverage. The amount of termination charge, if applicable, should be calculated by a specified formula or subject to a specific maximum amount, and must NOT include any monthly service charges for the remaining contract period. This charge should be communicated to the customer before he/she signs the contract.

You should to ask the service providers how their service contracts comply with the above requirements. You should also make reference to the Industry Code, wherever necessary, so as to understand the enhanced protection you can enjoy. Please refer to paragraph 11 of the Industry Code.

Remark

The Industry Code is a voluntary scheme of the industry and has been implemented by all major fixed and mobile network operators. Consumers should note that the Industry Code only applies to (a) new telecommunications service contracts provided by the participating service providers starting from July 2011; and (b) personal or residential users. Moreover, some of the protections offered by the Industry Code do not apply under certain conditions. Consumers should seek clarifications from service providers when in doubt, or where necessary, refer to the relevant parts of the Industry Code.

Please visit this page for the full text of the Industry Code and the list of service providers who have adopted it.

Back