THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI DAYANIDHI MARAN)
(a) to (c) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (c) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 53 FOR 7TH JULY, 2004 REGARDING FAILURE OF FIXED LINE SERVICE.
(a) to (c) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issues Quality of Service (QoS) Regulation for various services including Wireline (Fixed Line) services. Several parameters are laid down for QoS. It has been reported by TRAI that no operator is able to achieve all the benchmarks prescribed by TRAI for QoS parameters.
As per report for the quarter ending March 2004, the key parameters for which the benchmarks were not achieved by most of the Service Providers include the following:-
(i) Fault Incidences per 100 subscribers
(ii) Grade of Service
(iii) Call Completion rate in local network
(iv) Metering and Billing Credibility, and
(v) Shifts
As per report for the quarter ending December 2003, the benchmark for Overall Service Satisfaction (Subjective QoS Assessment) in Rajasthan, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Orissa, North East, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Assam Service areas was not met.
Reasons for failure to achieve the benchmark include poor quality of external plant wireline network of incumbent operators comprising of different types of underground cables laid over a period of time coupled with overhead alignments, subscriber station and non-availability of reliable power supply at telecommunication installations. Insurgency operations also affect maintenance of telecommunication networks in certain parts of the country resulting in cascading effect on QoS of various Service providers.
TRAI monitors quality of services provided by the operators at the end of each quarter. An agency is also nominated by TRAI to verify the values of Quality of Service parameters by visiting the networks of Service Providers. The results of the verifications for QoS parameters are widely published and put on TRAI`s website. TRAI attempts to ensure compliance through a process of interaction with service providers as well as by generating greater awareness among consumers. The competition forces service providers to improve quality of service in the Indian Telecom sector as a self-regulation. TRAI has not so far recommended any action against the operators for not complying with the QoS parameters.
