THE Opposition People's National Party (PNP) believes the time may be ripe for new competition in the telecommunications market, with inefficiencies in service and the increasing demand for data over voice having been brought even more sharply into focus during this COVID-19 crisis.

Opposition spokesman on technology Julian Robinson made the suggestion yesterday against the background of renewed, widespread complaints from customers about the quality of Internet service islandwide.

The quality and the consistency of the service from the Internet providers is unacceptable, particularly in a time where many persons have to work from home and students have to do online classes from home.

Public education specialist at the OUR Elizabeth Bennett Marsh explained that for the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) and the National Water Commission (NWC), if there is no consumption, for the most part it would be reflected on the usage portion of your bill.

So we are moving to address issues like that where service is interrupted for a portion of time, and if that happens what should you reasonably expect from your telecoms provider,” Bennett said.