Question : Quality of Telecom Services

(a) whether the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken cognizance of the rise in complaints and other grievances of consumers against telecom operators for the deficient and unsatisfactory services;

(b) if so, the details thereof along with the remedial measures taken by the telecom operators in pursuance with the directions of TRAI to improve customers'' satisfaction along with penalties imposed, if any, on the telecom companies for the same;

(c) whether the telecom service providers are adhering to the norms laid down for quality of telecom services and if so, the details thereof and if not, the corrective measures being taken by the Government in this regard;

(d) whether the Government proposes to amend TRAI Act, 1997 so as to empower it to take stringent action against the telecom operators for violation of norms and guidelines and if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the action taken/being taken by the Government in this regard?

THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a) to (e) 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 (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.147 FOR 9th December, 2015 REGARDING “QUALITY OF TELECOM SERVICES”.

(a) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken cognizance of the rise in complaints and other grievances of consumers against telecom operators.

(b) & (c) TRAI Act 1997 does not envisage of handling of individual complaints by TRAI. However, based on consumer complaints received in TRAI, TRAI has issued a number of Directions, Regulations and Orders to protect the interest of consumers. These Directions, Regulations and Orders are complied with by the service providers & TRAI monitors and ensure such compliance by service providers. Recently, TRAI has issued the Telecom Consumers Protection (Eighth Amendment) Regulations, 2015 to address customers concerns relating to activation/deactivation of data services, provision of information relating to data usage etc. These regulations are being complied with by the service providers.

For addressing the grievances of the consumers relating to call drop, TRAI had notified “The Telecom Consumers Protection (Ninth Amendment) Regulations, 2015 (9 of 2015) on 16th October 2015, to compensate consumers. These regulations mandate originating TSPs to credit one Rupee for a dropped call to the calling consumers as notional compensation, limited to three dropped calls in a day. These regulations will be effective from 1st January 2016.

TRAI has been monitoring the performance of service providers, against the quality of service benchmarks for the various parameters laid down by TRAI through Quality of Service Regulations issued from time to time, through compliance reports submitted by the service providers on monthly/quarterly basis.

As per the performance monitoring report for the quarter ending September 2015, for cellular mobile telephone services 2G/3G, most of the service providers are meeting the benchmarks related to the parameters for its 2G/3G services. For 2G/3G services, non-compliance with the benchmarks is mostly observed in respect of the parameters (1) “Worst affected cells having more than 3% Traffic Channel(TCH) drop (call drop) rate/and circuit switched voice drop rate” (2) “Worst affected Base Transmission Station(BTSs)/Node-B’s due to downtime.” In respect of Customer service parameters for 2G services, non-compliance with the benchmark is observed in respect of parameter (1) “%age of calls answered by the operators (voice to voice) within 90 seconds” (2) “Time taken for refund of deposits after closures”

As per the performance monitoring report for the quarter ending June, 2015 for Basic (Wireline) / Broadband services, all the service providers are generally meeting the benchmarks related to the parameters for its Basic/Broadband services. Non-Compliance with the benchmarks is mainly observed in respect of the parameters (1) “Response time to the customer for assistance %age of calls answered by the operators (voice to voice) within 90 seconds.:

For ensuring quality of service, TRAI is closely monitoring the performance of service providers against the quality of service benchmarks. TRAI has structured mechanism for imposing financial disincentive. Wherever the Quality of Service benchmarks are not met the explanation of the service providers is called for and after considering the response of the service provider financial disincentive are imposed. Upto June 2015, a sum of Rs 9.7 crore has been collected by TRAI. TRAI has now made financial disincentives more stringent in cases of continuous non compliance with the bench mark for mobile services. TRAI has been perusing with service providers for improving Quality of Service and in this regard regular interactions are held with the service providers. TRAI has also engaged independent agencies for auditing and assessing the quality of service and surveys are being done regularly through independent agencies to assess the customer perception of service. The results of the audit and assessment of quality of service and surveys are published for the information of stakeholders, which also force the service providers to improve the quality of service.

In addition to above, elaborate testing of Mobile service operators’ Network is being done by Department of Telecommunication(DoT). Fortnightly review is being done at the highest level in DoT. Signs of improvements are already there and Operators are required to take further initiatives for addressing call drop issue.

(d) & (e) Department is working on Comprehensive legislative proposal to review and harmonise the legal frame work.