Lok Sabha Question No. 3895 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-11
Subject: Landline Telephones
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Kapil Moreshwar Patil

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3895 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11 TH   DECEMBER, 2019

## LANDLINE TELEPHONES

## †3895. SHRI KAPIL MORESHWAR PATIL:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether landline telephones remain out of order for many days in the rural, hilly and tribal areas;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the remedial steps taken by the Government in this regard;
- (d) the extent to which the quality standards fixed by the Government in this regard have been achieved; and
- (e) the action taken by the Government to improve the said services?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a) to (d) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been monitoring the performance of  Telecom  Service  Providers  (TSPs)  against  the  benchmarks  for  various  Quality  of  Service parameters laid down by TRAI by way of Quality of Service regulations issued from time to time, through  Quarterly  Performance  Monitoring  Reports  (PMRs).  The  performance  is  assessed  for  a License Service Area (LSA) as a whole.

TRAI assess fault repair in rural and hilly areas through parameters viz '% Fault repaired by next working day (for rural and hilly areas) (benchmark >75%) & % Fault repaired within 7 days (for rural and hilly areas) (benchmark >100%)'.

As per the PMR for Basic Services for the quarter ending September 2019, all the service providers are meeting all the benchmarks for the above said parameters in all the Service areas.

- (e) TRAI has taken following steps to improve the services:
-  Close  monitoring  of  performance  of  service  providers,  against  the  benchmarks  for  various Quality  of  Service  parameters  laid  down  by  TRAI,  through  periodic  reports  from  service providers.
-  Follow up action with service providers for improving quality of service.
-  Imposition of financial  disincentives  for  non-compliance with the benchmarks for Quality of Service parameters.

Further, as reported by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the following actions have been taken to improve landline services:

-  Conversion of existing technology switches to Next Generation network.
-  Provision of ring system for exchanges for redundancy in connectivity.
-  Rehabilitation of outdoor network to reduce the landline faults is being done.
-  Monsoon  control  room  are  set  up  in  the  circles  during  monsoon  to  monitor  the  functioning  of landline and broadband services.
-  Since  the  landline  faults  mainly  occur  due  to  damage  of  underground  (UG)  cable  during  road works, regular patrolling of important cable routes is done to prevent cable thefts/cable damages.
-  Round  the  clock  Toll  free  complaint  booking  mechanism.  Moreover,  help  desk  portal  and  call centre are set up.
-  A stringent monitoring procedure is being adopted for prompt and timely clearance of customers complaints.

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