getclosure! recently interviewed the General Manager of the Internet Service Providers’ Association, Ant Brooks. He describes the organisation and informs consumers how they can go about lodging a complaint against their Internet service provider.

1. Describe how ISPA operates and what its primary function is.

The Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) is a South African Internet industry body not for gain. ISPA currently has 158 members, comprised of large, medium and small Internet service and access providers in South Africa. Formed in 1996, ISPA has historically served as an active industry body, facilitating exchange between the different independent Internet service providers, the Department of Communications, ICASA, operators and other service providers in South Africa.

2. What does your average work day entail?

ISPA is a completely virtual organisation, making full use of all the benefits of the wired world. We have no central offices, and have staff and office bearers scattered around the country. We also hold 90% of our meetings via teleconference, and make heavy use of online tools ,such as mailing lists, to co-ordinate our activities.

ISPA is also a busy organisation with 12 active working groups dealing with everything from our teachers’ training program, through to conference organisation, consumer complaints processing and regulatory support for our members.

That means that my typical day involves participating in between one and three Working Groups teleconferences, doing preparation for upcoming teleconferences, workshops and answering emails. Answering a lot of emails.

3. When should a consumer lodge a complaint against their Internet service provider (ISP)?

If a consumer is having a problem with their service provider, they should lodge a complaint with ISPA if:

  • Their ISP is a member of ISPA. (We get a fair number of complaints against non-members, and we’re a voluntary association, so we can’t help with those.) A full list of ISPA members is available here.
  • If the consumer has already tried to resolve the problem directly with the service provider.

If all these hold true, then the next stop is the online complaint form.

Once we get the complaint, we will give the ISP a chance to resolve the matter informally with the customer. If that process doesn’t prove successful then the complaint will be referred to an independent adjudicator for a review and a ruling.

More information on ISPA’s complaints procedure is available on our website.

Please click here to read the full interview with Ant on the getclosure! website.