(a) whether the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has
conducted any survey regarding the quality of voice for
international calls offered by the internet service providers
(ISPs) and the speed of internet access;
(b) if so, the outcome thereof; and
(c) the action taken by the Government to provide improved
service to the customers by ISPs?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHOK PRADHAN)
(a) & (b) As per the TRAI Act 1997, as amended by TRAI
(Amendment) Act, 2000, TRAI is mandated to lay down standard of
Quality of service to be provided by to service providers. TRAI
has also to ensure the quality of service and conduct periodical
survey of such service provided by service providers so as to
protect interest of the consumers of telecommunication service.
Accordingly an online survey has been conducted by TRAI to find
out the customers perception of quality of Internet Service
(including Internet telephony) rendered during the period from
May to June, 2003. The relevant summary of the findings is given
in the Annexure.
(c ) Government has permitted ISPs to set up international
gateways for Internet using satellite medium as well as
submarine cable medium so as to increase the availability of
international bandwidth for use of Internet services. This will
facilitate improved services to the customers.
Annexure
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
1. How frequently do people use internet telephony ?
About 40% of the respondents are using Internet telephony
out of which 20.75% use it once, 5% have use it twice, 2.75%
used it thrice, 2% used it four times and 9.5% used it five
times in the last one month.
2. How many people are not satisfied with the voice
transmission ?
About 20% of the users discontinued once, 4% twice, 2.5%
trice, 1.5% four times and 6% have discontinued the call 5
times for not being able to communicate properly, in the
last one month.
3. Country wise breakup of total callers.
COUNTRIES CUSTOMERS USING INTERNET TELEPONY USA 808 GULF 70 EUROPE 148 OTHERS 610
ISP NAME % OF USERS THAT AE NOT ABLE TO GET MINIMUM SPEEDOF 28.8 KBPS VSNL 65.37 SATYAM/SIFY 16.4 DISHNET 46.17 BSNL/DOT 71.4 MANTRAONLINE 31.57 MTNL 73.13 OTHERS 51.1