Call For Stronger Action Against Mobile & Broadband Providers Who Are Failing Customers.

The introduction of new legislation allowing consumers to exit mobile and broadband contracts in the event of price hikes is a welcome and long-overdue step. For years, customers have faced routine annual increases, often quietly applied and seldom explained, leaving households paying more for the same level of service.

However, while this new move addresses unfair price rises, it fails to tackle an equally serious issue: with providers continuing to charge full price even when their services are down for extended periods. Across the country, customers routinely experience outages lasting hours or even several days, yet no automatic refunds or meaningful compensation are offered.

This situation is unacceptable. It is fundamentally unfair that consumers are expected to honour their contracts in full when providers do not honour theirs. Reliable service is not a luxury; it is an essential utility, particularly for families working from home, students relying on online learning, and older people depending on digital communication.

Mobile and broadband companies have for too long enjoyed strong profits while delivering inconsistent service, placing the burden on customers who often have little choice of an alternative provider. A voluntary refund system is not good enough.

Regulators and the Irish Government must now go further by compelling providers to:

• Introduce automatic compensation for outages, without requiring customers to chase refunds.
• Publish clear service-level commitments, including timelines for restoring faults.
• Be held accountable for persistent service failures, with penalties for repeated non-compliance.

While this new legislation empowers consumers to walk away from unfair price increases, it is only one part of a wider problem. True consumer protection requires not just the right to leave a contract, but assurance that the service being paid for is delivered reliably and responsibly.

It is time to hold mobile and broadband providers to a higher standard. Irish customers deserve no less.