With increased sophistication in telecommunications, the role of the user groups could grow, from that of merely looking after the interests of their members to that of support and partnership, to service providers, regulators and the industry in general, in a more positive way. Contributions could be made by user groups towards the QoS parameters for Internet-based services and mobile services. Absence of such influence could result in the network provider and service provider imposing their concepts of quality on the customers with the possibility of not optimising customer needs with the network capabilities. Special interest groups' requirements also needs to be identified and channelled to the relevant bodies in order to provide justice to the needs of members of such groups.

Inspec keywords: customer services; quality of service; mobile radio; telecommunication network management; Internet

Other keywords: service providers; telecommunication quality of service management; mobile services; QoS parameters; Internet-based services

Subjects: Network management