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About us

The Swedish Telecom Advisors (Telekområdgivarna) provide impartial and free assistance to consumers on TV, telephone and broadband subscriptions. As a consumer, you can consult us for advice prior to entering into an agreement, and also contact us if you have already concluded an agreement with an operator and problems occur that you cannot resolve with the operator. We can provide you with guidance and in certain cases assist in the dialogue between you and the operator to actively find a solution.

We are a non-profit organisation financed by the operators who form part of the organisation, owned by the organisation Swedish IT and Telecom Industries (IT&Telekomföretagen), and in order to ensure impartiality, the Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) and the Post and Telecom Authority (Post- och telestyrelsen) are represented on our board, and also have the casting vote.

Vision

The Swedish Telecom Advisors provide impartial and free assistance to consumers on TV, telephone and broadband subscriptions.

The guidance we provide to business owners is limited to sole traders. We are unable to consider cases that concern other types of business as these are outside both consumer legislation and our rules of conduct of business.

We work to make consumers better consumers and operators better operators. By actively working with authorities and operators, we contribute to the goal of creating the best consumer market in Sweden.

We began operations in 2006, and whilst we are known as the Swedish Telecom Advisors, our registered name is Konsumenternas tele- tv- & internetbyrå Telekområdgivarna AB. The company is non-profit and its company registration number is 556699-9339.

Board

The board of the Swedish Telecom Advisors comprises representatives of TV, telephone and broadband operators as well as state representatives. The state is represented by the Post and Telecom Agency and the Consumer Agency. The authorities and industry representatives have equal numbers of votes on the board, and one of the state authorities has the casting vote if necessary to make a decision on the Swedish Telecom Advisors’ operations.

Employees

The organisation is staffed by nine employees with great experience in matters of consumer law.

Owner and financers

The organisation is owned by TechSweden. It is financed by TV, telephone, and broadband operators who have chosen to be part of the organisation. T

Being part of the Swedish Telecom Advisors is voluntary, and operators who enter into agreements with consumers regarding TV, telephone or broadband services can be offered the opportunity to be involved as financers.

If the operator you have or are considering joining is not part of the Swedish Telecom Advisors, this may be because they have chosen not to be or because they do not fulfil the requirements.

When an operator applies to be part of our organisation, the criteria below form the basis for the assessment on whether to accept their application; if the criteria are not met, the operator will not be offered an agreement:

Proportion of complaints – the operator must not have attracted significantly more complaints to the Swedish Telecom Advisors than other operators of the same size.
Type of complaint – the operator must not have repeated complaints that indicate they are in breach of legislation or the Swedish Telecom Advisors’ conduct of business rules.

Operators with these issues will be refused the opportunity to sign an agreement until they have shown a clear and lasting improvement in adhering to relevant legislation, rulings and conduct of business rules. Operators who are already part of the Swedish Telecom Advisors but who violate the points above risk termination of their agreement under the conditions of the agreement.

The majority of the major operators have chosen to be part of the Swedish Telecom Advisors, and therefore have committed to acting in accordance with these rules.

The Swedish Telecom Advisors are in regular contact with these operators, which makes it easier to contribute to a dialogue in the event of disputes between consumers and operators. Another advantage of this direct contact is that we can identify and discuss solutions to problems on the market at an early stage, both with authorities and the industry.

Operators who are not shown on the list above are not part of the Swedish Telecom Advisors, and for this reason we do not have direct lines of contact with them. Market operators who only enter into agreements with business customers are not offered the opportunity to be part of the Swedish Telecom Advisors either.