Sky Ireland Ltd will be spared a court conviction after four phone customers experienced “annoying” and “frustrating” delays or double billing after switching to its landline service.
It pleaded guilty on Friday at Dublin District Court to failing to comply with laws governing “porting” or transferring existing phone numbers to another provider.
The company admitted that in the four cases before the court, it failed to comply with regulation 25(1) of the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Universal Service and Users’ Rights) Regulations 2011.
It follows an investigation by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg).
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Prosecution counsel Shelley Horan said the law provides that the process should be easy: porting should be active within a day, and loss of service should not exceed one working day.
Judge Anthony Halpin said there was a significant mitigation factor. Sky Ireland had no prior convictions, co-operated with the industry watchdog, and paid ComReg’s costs. In addition, it reimbursed the customers that were double billed and developed software to tackle the problem.
He also said he was surprised a standard system within the industry did not exist to facilitate an easy porting process. He said he would apply the Probation of Offenders Act if the company donated €5,000 to charity.
The court heard confusion over customer reference numbers caused the problems.
Amelia Nahum, an authorised officer with ComReg, told the court that the first customer was “pretty frustrated” having to wait from February 18th to March 15th, 2021, until their phone was transferred to Sky Ireland’s service.
The user did not have use of their landline, was double billed and had to make calls and email Sky Ireland.
The second customer had to wait from November 29th, 2021, until February 2022, and the company managed to complete the switch after 20 attempts. It caused difficulties for the customer contacting his bank, the court heard.
The court heard the third “annoyed” complainant had to wait a week and was double billed; the fourth also had to wait seven days and suffered service loss.
The ComReg witness agreed with defence counsel Niall Buckley that the customers affected had been fully refunded.
Counsel said the process was complex. However, the firm developed bespoke software to address the problem, which will go live in May. It had also retrained staff and offered to meet ComReg on several occasions.
Pleading for leniency, he also said the four complainants represented a small number of 21,000 phone users who switched to Sky Ireland last year.
Judge Halpin ordered the charitable donation to the Little Flower Penny Dinner Charity, which helps underprivileged people in Dublin city centre’s Liberties area.
At District Court level, each charge can result in a recorded conviction and fines of up to €5,000 per charge.