Lok Sabha Question No. 145 (STARRED), answered on 2019-02-13
Subject: Misleading Advertisements by Telecom Companies
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: RAHUL KASWAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.145 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13 TH  FEBRUARY, 2019

## MISLEADING ADVERTISEMENTS BY TELECOM COMPANIES

- †*145. SHRI RAHUL KASWAN:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  telecom  companies  are  disseminating  obscene,  misleading  and  undesired advertisements through e-mail, WhatsApp messenger, Facebook, etc. for their financial benefit;
- (b) if so, the details of the complaints received in this regard;
- (c) whether  the  said  disseminated  messages  are  against  the  traditions  of  Indian  culture  and society which are adversely affecting the young generations;
- (d) if  so,  the  effective  steps  proposed  to  be  taken  to  check  the  dissemination  of  the  said messages; and
- (e) whether  mobile  subscribers  are  facing  the  problem  of  call  drops,  cross  connections  and unavailability of network as the networks of telecom companies are not functioning properly, if so, the details thereof and the details of schemes formulated to address the said problems?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) to (e) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

Contd………2/-

## STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED  QUESTION NO. *145 FOR 13 TH FEBRUARY, 2019 ON 'MISLEADING ADVERTISEMENTS BY TELECOM COMPANIES'.

(a)  to (c) Madam, Cyber space is a complex environment of people, software, hardware and services  on  the  Internet.  With  a  borderless  cyberspace  and  the  ability  to  post  anything  from anywhere  and  at any  time,  the  potential  for  dissemination  of  obscene,  misleading  and  undesired content (which, in some cases, may be against the traditions of Indian culture and society) through email, Messaging platforms like WhatsApp and other social media sites exists. The same is also true for advertisements.

No specific complaint has been received so far in respect of such advertisements by Telecom Companies and others.

- (d) To deal with such matters, the existing provisions are as follows:
- (i) Section  67  of  Information  Technology  Act  (Amendments),  2008  provides  for  prohibiting publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form;
- (ii) Section 67A of Information Technology Act (Amendments), 2008 provides for punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act etc. in electronic form;
- (iii) Section 67B of Information Technology Act (Amendments), 2008 provides for punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form;
- (iv) Section 69A of Information Technology Act (Amendments), 2008 provides to issue directions for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource.

In addition to above, provisions of section 5 (2) of Indian Telegraph Act read with Rule 419 A of Indian Telegraph (1st amendment of 2014) Rules, 2014 and Section 69 of Information Technology Act (Amendments) 2008 also exist which may be invoked as and when required by the authorized Law enforcement agencies.

Accordingly,  based  on  the  directions  received  from  various  organisations  such  as  Ministry  of Electronics  and  Information  Technology,  Central  Bureau  of  Investigation  and  Judicial  courts, Department of Telecommunications(DoT) directs the licensed Internet service providers to block the public  access  to  any  information/website  from  any  computer  resource.  As  such  total  17444 Websites/Universal  Resource  Locator(URLs)  have  been  blocked  since  1 st January  2016  in  this regard.

- (e) The Government has received complaints regarding call drops and unavailability of network registered  under  the  category  call  drops  and  Network  Problem  /  Poor  Coverage  on  Centralized Public  Grievance  Redress  and  Monitoring  System  (CPGRAMS)  portal  during  the  year  2018.  A summary of the same is attached at Annexure - I(for call drops) and II(For network problem/ poor coverage). Regarding cross connection, as such no complaint has been received so far.

Following  are  the  schemes  under  which  call  drops  and  unavailable  network  of  TSPs  are monitored  and  appropriate  measures  are  taken  accordingly  for  improving  the  quality  of  Services (QoS) of the network.

i. TRAI,  through  'The  Standards  for  Quality  of  Service  for  Basic  (Wireline)  and  Cellular Mobile Telephone Services (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2017' dated 18th August, 2017 has prescribed two new parameters for assessment of Drop Call Rate in a mobile network,

viz.  'Drop  Call  Rate  (DCR)  Spatial  Distribution  Measure'  with  benchmark  value  <2%  and 'DCR Temporal Distribution Measure' with benchmark value <3% effective from 1st October 2017.

Drop Call Rate (DCR) Spatial Distribution Measure (benchmark ≤ 2%) implies that at-least 90% of Cells in the network should perform better than specified 2% benchmark on at-least 90% of the days in a quarter.

DCR Temporal Distribution Measure (benchmark ≤ 3%) will give confidence that on at-least 90% of Days in a quarter, network performed better than specified 3% benchmark for at-least 97% of the  Cells.    (A  Base  Transceiver  Station  (BTS)  installed  by  a  TSP  has  normally  3 Cells)

The  parameters  prevailing  earlier  assessed  the  performance  of  mobile  networks  for  the License Service Area (LSA) as a whole. However, the revised parameters, effective from 1st October 2017, are more stringent as they give better insight into the network performance of Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) at each Base Transceiver Station (BTS) level.

TRAI has also introduced a revised graded Financial Disincentives (FD) structure for DCR parameters  effective  from  1st  October  2017,  based  on  the  extent  to  which  a  TSP's performance deviates from the specified DCR benchmark.

- o Financial disincentive (per benchmark per quarter):

1st violation

- Earlier:  Rs. 1 lakh
- 
- 2 nd & subsequent violations

Rs. 1.5 lakh & Rs. 2 lakh

-  Current: Graded 1.5 to 2 times (Rs. 1 to 5 lakh) (Capped at Rs 10 Lakh)

As per latest report of TRAI for the quarter ending September 2018, all TSPs are complying to  Drop  Call  Rate  (DCR)  benchmark  despite  rapid  increase  in  traffic  volume  and  more stringent benchmarks, except M/s Idea in four License Service Areas (LSAs) i.e. Assam, Jammu  &  Kashmir,  Himachal  Pradesh  &  North  East;  and  M/s  Bharat  Sanchar  Nigam Limited (BSNL) in one LSA i.e. West Bengal.

The  service  providers  have  been  issued  Show  Cause  Notice  to  explain  their  position including reasons for non-compliance.

- ii.  Vide  Telecom  Consumers  Protection  (9th  Amendment)  Regulation,  2015  dated  16th October 2015, TRAI had mandated compensation to consumers of mobile services at the rate of Rs. 1/- per drop call, subject to a maximum of Rs. 3/- per day per subscriber by the concerned TSP and also (i)provide the calling consumer, through SMS/USSD message, within four hours of the occurrence of call drop, the details of amount in his account; and (ii)  in  case  of  post-paid  consumers,  provide  the  details  of  the  credit  in  the  next  bill. However, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has set aside the regulation vide Order dated 11th May, 2016.

## State Wise Report for the Period 01/01/2018 To 31/12/2018

Grievance Category: - Mobile: Call Drop/Improper Network Coverage

| SR.NO.   | State Name                  |   Brought Forward |   Received During |   Disposed During |   Pending During |
|----------|-----------------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|------------------|
| 1        | Andaman And Nicobar Islands |                 1 |                 5 |                 5 |                1 |
| 2        | Andhra Pradesh              |                 1 |                23 |                22 |                2 |
| 3        | Arunachal Pradesh           |                 0 |                 2 |                 2 |                0 |
| 4        | Assam                       |                 6 |                27 |                33 |                0 |
| 5        | Bihar                       |                 9 |                70 |                79 |                0 |
| 6        | Chandigarh                  |                 1 |                 7 |                 8 |                0 |
| 7        | Chhattisgarh                |                 3 |                29 |                32 |                0 |
| 8        | Dadra and Nagar Haveli      |                 0 |                 0 |                 0 |                0 |
| 9        | Daman and Diu               |                 0 |                 0 |                 0 |                0 |
| 10       | Delhi                       |                12 |               190 |               196 |                6 |
| 11       | Goa                         |                 0 |                 2 |                 1 |                1 |
| 12       | Gujarat                     |                 6 |                56 |                61 |                1 |
| 13       | Haryana                     |                 4 |                91 |                93 |                2 |
| 14       | Himachal Pradesh            |                 0 |                 8 |                 8 |                0 |
| 15       | Jammu And Kashmir           |                 4 |                18 |                18 |                4 |
| 16       | Jharkhand                   |                 2 |                31 |                33 |                0 |
| 17       | Karnataka                   |                11 |               137 |               144 |                4 |
| 18       | Kerala                      |                 0 |                33 |                33 |                0 |
| 19       | Lakshadweep                 |                 0 |                 0 |                 0 |                0 |
| 20       | Madhya Pradesh              |                 2 |                22 |                23 |                1 |
| 21       | Maharashtra                 |                19 |               177 |               191 |                5 |
| 22       | Manipur                     |                 1 |                 0 |                 1 |                0 |
| 23       | Meghalaya                   |                 0 |                 2 |                 2 |                0 |
| 24       | Mizoram                     |                 0 |                 1 |                 1 |                0 |
| 25       | Nagaland                    |                 0 |                 0 |                 0 |                0 |
| 26       | Odisha                      |                 2 |                72 |                73 |                1 |
| 27       | Puducherry                  |                 0 |                 1 |                 1 |                0 |
| 28       | Punjab                      |                 3 |                41 |                43 |                1 |
| 29       | Rajasthan                   |                 9 |                89 |                98 |                0 |
| 30       | Sikkim                      |                 1 |                 0 |                 1 |                0 |
| 31       | Tamilnadu                   |                 5 |                73 |                73 |                5 |
| 32       | Telangana                   |                 3 |                30 |                33 |                0 |
| 33       | Tripura                     |                 0 |                 2 |                 2 |                0 |
| 34       | Uttar Pradesh               |                 9 |               300 |               298 |               11 |
| 35       | Uttarakhand                 |                 2 |                30 |                31 |                1 |
| 36       | West Bengal                 |                14 |               109 |               122 |                1 |
|          | Total                       |               130 |              1678 |              1761 |               47 |

## Annexure -I

| R.NO.   | State Name                  |   Brought Forward |   Received During |   Disposed During |   Pending During |
|---------|-----------------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|------------------|
| 1       | Andaman And Nicobar Islands |                 0 |                12 |                10 |                2 |
| 2       | Andhra Pradesh              |                 5 |               101 |               105 |                1 |
| 3       | Arunachal Pradesh           |                 0 |                 5 |                 5 |                0 |
| 4       | Assam                       |                 1 |               139 |               138 |                2 |
| 5       | Bihar                       |                20 |               372 |               384 |                8 |
| 6       | Chandigarh                  |                 0 |                84 |                83 |                1 |
| 7       | Chhattisgarh                |                 4 |                99 |               102 |                1 |
| 8       | Dadra and Nagar Haveli      |                 0 |                 1 |                 1 |                0 |
| 9       | Daman and Diu               |                 0 |                 1 |                 1 |                0 |
| 10      | Delhi                       |                21 |               760 |               755 |               26 |
| 11      | Goa                         |                 1 |                18 |                19 |                0 |
| 12      | Gujarat                     |                 6 |               233 |               233 |                6 |
| 13      | Haryana                     |                 7 |               252 |               249 |               10 |
| 14      | Himachal Pradesh            |                 1 |                45 |                44 |                2 |
| 15      | Jammu And Kashmir           |                 7 |               129 |               130 |                6 |
| 16      | Jharkhand                   |                 2 |               101 |                98 |                5 |
| 17      | Karnataka                   |                16 |               540 |               539 |               17 |
| 18      | Kerala                      |                 6 |               136 |               141 |                1 |
| 19      | Lakshadweep                 |                 0 |                 0 |                 0 |                0 |
| 20      | Madhya Pradesh              |                 7 |               171 |               175 |                3 |
| 21      | Maharashtra                 |                22 |               630 |               637 |               15 |
| 22      | Manipur                     |                 1 |                 3 |                 4 |                0 |
| 23      | Meghalaya                   |                 0 |                10 |                 9 |                1 |
| 24      | Mizoram                     |                 0 |                 4 |                 4 |                0 |
| 25      | Nagaland                    |                 0 |                 4 |                 4 |                0 |
| 26      | Odisha                      |                 3 |               200 |               201 |                2 |
| 27      | Puducherry                  |                 0 |                 2 |                 2 |                0 |
| 28      | Punjab                      |                 4 |               133 |               134 |                3 |
| 29      | Rajasthan                   |                 7 |               304 |               300 |               11 |
| 30      | Sikkim                      |                 0 |                 0 |                 0 |                0 |
| 31      | Tamilnadu                   |                 8 |               247 |               239 |               16 |
| 32      | Telangana                   |                 1 |               108 |               104 |                5 |
| 33      | Tripura                     |                 1 |                27 |                26 |                2 |
| 34      | Uttar Pradesh               |                25 |              1066 |              1050 |               41 |
| 35      | Uttarakhand                 |                 2 |                90 |                91 |                1 |
| 36      | West Bengal                 |                11 |               374 |               372 |               13 |
|         | Total                       |               189 |              6401 |              6389 |              201 |

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