Tashkent, Uzbekistan – Podrobno.uz. The Committee for the Development of Competition and Consumer Protection of Uzbekistan has submitted proposals to the Ministry of Digital Technologies to address problems with calling short numbers.
The committee emphasizes that consumers' right to full and reliable information about goods and services remains fundamental. However, recently short number lines are often busy, subscribers have to wait a long time to connect with an operator, and sometimes calls go unanswered or are interrupted by technical failures. As a result, citizens lose time and cannot resolve their issues promptly.
The study showed that the majority of calls from mobile phones are to electricity, gas, and water supply services, as well as other vital services. In some cases, subscribers have to wait between 10 and 30 minutes for a connection.
Moreover, over 80% of utility-related appeals were received by the Committee's hotline at 1159. Recently, complaints about gas supply increased 4.5 times, about household waste 2.4 times, and about drinking water and construction 1.2 times.
Additionally, the work of call centers is not regulated by a single document, which reduces the availability of hotlines for citizens and businesses, leads to time loss, and complicates prompt resolution of issues.
The committee has developed a number of measures to improve their performance. In particular, it proposes to introduce a procedure for evaluating contact centers, established by Cabinet Resolution No. 790 of November 27, 2024, extend it to all organizations working with the public, establish liability for identified shortcomings, and publish evaluation results openly.
The implementation of these proposals is expected to make the process of citizens contacting short numbers faster and more convenient, reduce time loss, and increase trust in service organizations.
Earlier, the Competition Committee analyzed the activities of visa centers in Uzbekistan. As a result, VFS Global Services and Vizametric were found to hold a dominant market position, while TLS Contact received the status of a company with superior bargaining power in the visa services market for Germany and France.
Source: podrobno.uz