Working remotely, handling administrative or banking matters, doing the shopping or even attending school – all of these activities are now happening via the internet.
In our relations with customers, we are primarily concerned with building long-term relationships based on trust and partnership. We want our customers to feel and know that we treat them fairly. We realise that in the current market situation, all customers are entirely free to choose the service provider they prefer, so customer opinion is very important for us.
In connection with the epidemic situation in 2020, we have taken a number of measures to protect the health and safety of our employees, colleagues and customers. As a critical infrastructure operator, T-Mobile monitored the emerging threats on an ongoing basis in order to react quickly and to be able to provide stable services to our customers.
According to T‑Mobile’s data, the requirement for voice-based services during the first days following the announcement of the state of epidemic emergency increased by 50% in this network, while the requirement for data transmission went up by 20%. Being aware of that, the operator has taken continuous care of the best quality of the network, preparing it to keep up with the increased demand for services.
During the last year, we encouraged our customers to stay at home and use our remote Customer Service tools — My T-Mobile application and My T-Mobile website, where a customer can independently resolve most of the issues related to the operation of their account, without the need to directly contact the operator’s employee.
With a view to encourage its customers to stay at home, T-Mobile launched ‘We Are Here for You’, a dedicated customer website where customers could obtain the necessary information about the remote Customer Service tools and remote consultant contact channels as well as get answers to the frequently asked questions.
While the pandemic was going on in Poland, T‑Mobile started a great number of initiatives, sharing its knowledge, products and services for improved comfort while working remotely and education of customers.
More information about T-Mobile’s activities during the pandemic can be found in here.
In our everyday work, we follow professional ethics, build relationships with customers and we are happy to have their trust. The security of customer data is also an important aspect of our work — we employ security systems and we monitor risks.
Information security is one of the cornerstones of credibility of telecommunications companies
To prevent possible damage in this area, we have identified risks and implemented a comprehensive package of technical and organisational measures that comply with the international standard ISO 27001, to ensure the confidentiality and resilience of data collection systems. The safeguards we use are continuously monitored and updated, which enables us to effectively prevent cybersecurity incidents. At every stage of data collection and processing, we inform customers about the purpose and scope of such operations, as well as about their right to access and make corrections to the data.
In 2020, we launched the implementation of the European Electronic Communications Code (change to the Telecommunications Law, implemented on the basis of EU regulations), which will specify such areas as: issues related to customer service, security of personal data, customer marketing consents. Issues such as cookies will also be regulated. The new regulations are already being put in place — some of them are already in effect; requirements under the regulations are now being adapted to the area of customer safety in order to ensure that all customers can exercise the rights they have. The Code will be fully applicable from July 2021.
In 2020, we recorded 307 ‘significant’ incidents relating to the violation of privacy with respect to customer data. Under these, Customers submitted justified reports of the data being shared with an unauthorised person, as well as reports related to the issue of lost documents which contained our Customers’ data (e.g., due to an act of a courier company, without the loss of these data in the systems). In the past year, there were no major or large-scale incidents.
As part of corrective measures, we constantly improve our internal standards of action to minimise the number of such incidents in the future. We react swiftly to any breaches recorded, and we deliver personal data protection training and awareness campaigns for our employees. We have also implemented relevant procedures for reporting personal data breaches. All incidents are considered on a case-by-case basis.
When data are shared by our employees, the employee and their manager are informed of the breach found. In this way, we want to minimise the risk of recurrence of any further breaches. A disciplinary interview is also held with the manager of the employee concerned. Additionally, employees are recommended to exercise due care and diligence to ensure that a similar breach is not repeated in future.
We also verify that courier companies fulfil their obligations under the agreement concluded, including the obligations to act in accordance with the instructions and guidelines received from T-Mobile. The recommendations proposed and possible doubts as regards complying with the existing rules and standards are discussed on an ongoing basis during meetings with courier companies. Liquidated damages may be awarded for data breaches as provided for in the contractual clauses.
Data security is even more important in the times of accelerated digitisation. Seeking ways to improve their business or even maintain business continuity in the current situation, companies are increasingly keen to use digital solutions. To make sure that our customers have access to secure and reliable ICT solutions, we have invested in another state-of-the-art data processing facility in Warsaw. The new T‑mobile data processing centre is to comply with high security standards. The project has been recognised by an independent certification authority to meet ANSI/TIA 942 standard at Rated-3 level, which means that all areas of the data centre activity were assessed at a high level of reliability. The quality of the new data centre will be further confirmed by another certification, which will assess the centre after it starts operating, in 2021. Certification according to the European Standard EN 50600 is also planned.
T-Mobile has more than ten data processing centres, located all over Poland, at its disposal. Recently, the data centres in Wrocław and Cracow have been expanded, and a backup office service has been introduced in the Lower Silesia region.
Disabled people are our very special customers. We can see the problems they have to overcome daily.
At T-Mobile, we endeavour to offer technological solutions for the individual needs of disabled people. To this end, we commenced cooperation with Migam, a company which helps us to develop solutions for the needs of the deaf.
With the new technological solutions, we offer sign language interpreting or induction loop systems at 120 T-Mobile stores. The long-term cooperation between T‑Mobile and Migam serves to break the communication barriers frequently encountered by people affected by deafness and hearing impairments in their daily routines, and which can be avoided by the use of new technologies.
At our points of sale, we use special signs which indicate whether sign language services are available, or whether the POS offers facilities for people with reduced mobility.