Lok Sabha Question No. 1987 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-07
Subject: Poor Telecom Services in Rural, Hilly and Tribal Areas
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: BHOLA SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1987 TO BE ANSWERED ON 7 th  MARCH, 2018

## POOR TELECOM SERVICES IN RURAL, HILLY AND TRIBAL AREAS

†1987. SHRI BHOLA SINGH:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government is aware of the fact that basic telephone, mobile and internet facilities reportedly remain out of order for a long period in rural, hilly and tribal areas;

- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (c) the extent to which the fixed quality norms have been achieved in this regard;
- (d) the remedial measures taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (e) the action taken by the Government to improve the services in the said areas?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

(a) to (c) The Quality of Services benchmarks for telecommunication  services are notified by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) under TRAI Act, 1997 at the level of License Service Area (LSA) as a whole. These LSAs cover all States and Union Territories of India.

In  order  to  maintain  tele-connectivity,  performance  benchmarks  have  been prescribed for upkeep of telephone networks and services which includes:

- (i) For Basic services: At least 75 % of the faults to be repaired by next working day  and  100  %  of  the  faults  to  be  repaired  within  7  days  for  rural  andhilly areas.

As  per  the  TRAI's  Performance  Monitoring  Report  for  the  quarter  ending September  2017,  all  Telecom  Service  Providers  have  complied  to  these benchmarks.

- (ii) For mobile services: The performance parameter, 'Base Transceiver Stations (BTS)  Accumulated  downtime'  (not  available  for  service)  measures  the downtime of the BTS including its transmission links/ circuits during the period of  a  month but  excludes  all planned  service  downtime for  any  maintenance, (benchmark ≤ 2%). As per the TRAI's Performance Monitoring Report for the quarter ending September 2017, only M/s Aircel was not able to comply with the benchmark in North-East LSA.
- (iii) For Broadband services: At least 90 % of faults to be repaired by next working day and at least 99 % of faults to be repaired within 3 working day. As per the TRAI's  Performance  Monitoring  Report  for  the  quarter  ending  September 2017,  only  M/s  Tata  Tele  Services  Limited  could  not  fully  comply  with  the benchmark.

(d) to (e) In  order  to  ensure  compliance  with  benchmarks,  TRAI  has  taken  the following steps:

- (i) Follow  up  action  with  service  providers  and  action  plan  for  improving quality of services,
- (ii) Meeting  with  the  service  providers  to  evaluate  the  performance  against the action plan
- (iii) Audit and assessment of quality of services including customer perception surveys through independent agencies.

In  order  to  further  extend  tele-connectivity  in  rural,  hilly  and  tribal  areas  of  the country, the Government has been undertaking several initiatives including BharatNet Project,  Comprehensive  Telecom  Development  Plans  for  the  North-Eastern  Region (NER),  Andaman  &  Nicobar  Islands  and  Lakshadweep  Islands,  and  Provisioning  of mobile services in Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) areas.

****************