THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) to (e) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been monitoring the Quality of Service performed by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) against the benchmarks for the various quality of service parameters laid down by TRAI through regulations issued from time to time, including parameters relating to call drop.
TRAI had recently reviewed the network related parameters and issued “the Standards for Quality of Service for Basic (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Services (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2017” dated 18th August 2017. These Regulations, effective from 1st October 2017 have prescribed two revised parameters for assessing call drop in mobile network, viz. Call drop-rate Spatial distribution measure (benchmark = 2%) implies that at-least 90% of Cells in the network should perform better than specified 2% benchmark on at-least 90% of days. Similarly, another new parameter, Call drop-rate Temporal distribution measure will give confidence that on at-least 90% of Days, network performed better than specified 3% benchmark for at-least 97% of the Cells.
Revised approach for assessing Call drop-rate will give better insight into the network performance of service provider and help to highlight the specific areas and specific days when network performance was excellent or good or poor. The performance on these parameters is monitored quarterly through Performance Monitoring Reports (PMR) submitted by service providers for the service area as a whole. As per PMR for the quarter ending March 2018, all TSPs offering mobile services are generally meeting both the parameters in all License Service Areas (LSAs) except, M/s Idea & Tata is not meeting in 5 LSAs each, M/s Telenor in 2 LSAs and M/s BSNL in 1 LSA only. For the parameter Call drop-rate Temporal distribution measure, M/s Tata is not meeting in 7 LSAs, M/s Idea & Telenor in 2 LSAs each and M/s BSNL in 1 LSA only.
So far as violations are concerned, the Authority has now introduced a revised graded Financial Disincentives (FD) structure, effective from 1st October 2017, for monitoring compliance against these parameters. If network does not meet benchmark, then financial disincentives may also be increased by Rupees One lakh for every 2% deviation from the benchmark, subject to a maximum FD of Rupees Five lakh per parameter, in case of first contravention. However, in the case of non-compliance in consecutive quarters, then the amount of FD may be increased by a factor of 1.5 for first consecutive contravention and by a factor of 2 for second and subsequent consecutive contraventions. The total amount payable as financial disincentives under this new regulation in a quarter, for one or both parameters combined, shall not exceed Rupees Ten Lakhs.
In accordance with above, action has been initiated for imposing financial disincentives on TSPs for non-compliance with the benchmarks.
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