Lok Sabha Question No. 647 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-05
Subject: Complaints against TSPs
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Hemant Patil, Sujay Radhakrishna Vikhepatil, D.K. Suresh, Ranjeetsingh Naik Nimbalkar, Girish Bhalchandra Bapat, Sambhajirao Mane Dhairyasheel, Shrikant Eknath Shinde

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 647

TO BE ANSWERED ON 5 TH  FEBRUARY, 2020

## COMPLAINTS AGAINST TSPs

## 647. SHRI HEMANT SRIRAM PATIL:

DR. SUJAY RADHAKRISHNA VIKHE PATIL:

SHRI D.K. SURESH:

SHRI RANJEETSINGH HINDURAO NAIK NIMBALKAR:

SHRI GIRISH BHALCHANDRA BAPAT:

SHRI DHAIRYASHEEL SAMBHAJIRAO MANE:

DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has received complaints of subscribers against Telecom Service Providers(TSPs) during each of the last three years and the current year, if so, the details thereof, TSP-wise;
- (b) whether TSPs have been found guilty in addressing complaints of subscribers in an effective and time bound manner in such complaints and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  the  TRAI  has  any  mechanism  to  monitor  the  efforts  taken  by  the  TSPs  in  addressing grievances of subscribers and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) other corrective steps taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) Sir, total number of complaints received in TRAI against the present Telecom Service Providers are tabulated below:

|   Year 2017 |   Year 2018 |   Year 2019 |
|-------------|-------------|-------------|
|       20522 |       30274 |       30131 |

## TSP wise details are enclosed at Annexure-I.

- (b) to  (c) TRAI Act 1997 does not envisage handling of individual consumer complaints to TRAI. As per the license conditions, any dispute relating to provision of service shall be redressed by service provider in accordance with the direction, order and regulations issued by Licenser/TRAI.  In accordance with the above provisions, TRAI had laid down the framework for Redressal of grievances of telecom consumers by service providers through the Telecom Consumers Protection and Redressal of Grievances Regulations, 2012. These regulations  provide  for  a  two-tier  Grievance  Redrassal  Mechanism  viz  Complaint  Centre  and  Appellate Authority.  Complaint Centre will have Toll Free Consumer Care Number for complaints and service requests.

The Consumer Care Number could also be accessed from any network through an alternative number.  If a consumer  is  not  satisfied  with  the  redressal  of  his  complaint,  or  his  complaint  remains  unaddressed  or  no intimation of redressal of the complaint is received within the specified period, he can approach the next tier the  Appellate  Authority  for  redressal  of  his  complaints.    The  appellate  authority  will  have  an  advisory committee  comprising  of  one  member  from  the  consumer  organisation  registered  with  TRAI  and  another member from the service provider.  The appellate authority has to decide on every appeal within 39 days after considering the recommendations of the advisory committee.  Time limits have been prescribed for redressal of complaints by the complaint centre and also appeal by the Appellate Authority.

TRAI  has  been  monitoring  the  performance  of  service  providers  against  the  benchmark  for  above regulation, through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs) submitted by service providers.  The details of Consumers Redressal Report submitted by Service Providers for the Quarter ending September 2019 is enclosed as Annexure-II .

(d) In  case  a  grievance  is  not  redressed  even  after  exhausting  the  two  tier  procedure  as  prescribed  by TRAI, the complainant may approach Public Grievance wing of Department of Telecommunications (DoT), along with all documentary evidence(s) for non-redressal of grievance at concerned Service Provider level. Complainant may submit grievance in either of the following ways:

- (i) By  hand  (ii)  By  post  (iii)  Through  FAX  (iv)  Through  phone  OR  (v)  CPGRAMS  Web  portal URL://www.pgportal.gov.in

The  complaints  so  registered  in  DoT  are  forwarded  to  the  concerned  service  provider/  subordinate organizations(s)  with  an  advise  to  take  appropriate  action  in  the  matter  and  to  inform  the  complainant regarding  the  action  taken  towards  the  redressal  of  grievance.  All  the  complaints  received  in  DoT  are monitored in a transparent, user friendly and structured manner by DoT staff and officers. DoT also provides an option to the complainants to raise his/ her grievance through social media like twitter.

Apart from above DoT also took initiative to bring telecom consumers under the ambit of Consumer Protection Act, 2018.

Further, DoT is also considering to set-up Telecom Ombudsman for addressing the telecom consumer grievances.

Annexure-I Number of Complaints received in TRAI against Telecom Service Providers in last three calendar years

| S.No.   | Service Provider                        |   2017 |   2018 |   2019 |
|---------|-----------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|
| 1       | Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Airtel)             |   6932 |  12041 |  10552 |
| 2       | Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)     |    819 |   1102 |   1442 |
| 3       | Quadrant Televentures Ltd (HFCL)        |     29 |      9 |      1 |
| 4       | Idea Cellular Ltd. (Idea)               |   2594 |   3380 |   2141 |
| 5       | Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL)   |    268 |    295 |    228 |
| 6       | Reliance Communications Ltd. (Reliance) |   2689 |   1108 |     10 |
| 7       | Tata Teleservices Ltd. (TTSL)           |    601 |    753 |    302 |
| 8       | Vodafone India Limited (Vodafone)       |   5394 |   8278 |  10708 |
| 9       | Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd               |   1196 |   3308 |   4747 |
| Total   | Total                                   |  20522 |  30274 |  30131 |

Annexure-II

| Consumer Redressal Basic/Cellular/Bro adband   | Report submitted by Service Provider   | Service Providers Total no. of complaints received during the quarter and previous quarters pending complaints   | (Period ending September Total number of complaints redressed   | 2019) Total number of complaints redressed beyond time limit   | Total No. of complaints pending   | No. of appeals received   | No. of appeals decided including backlog of previous quarter   | No. of appeals decided beyond time limit   | No. of appeals pending during the quarter ending   |
|------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|---------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
| Basic                                          | Airtel                                 | 402126                                                                                                           | 391719                                                          | 17414                                                          | 10407                             | 6                         | 7                                                              | 1                                          | 3                                                  |
| Cellular                                       | Airtel                                 | 777385                                                                                                           | 639511                                                          | 236156                                                         | 137874                            | 88                        | 144                                                            | 51                                         | 39                                                 |
| Broadband                                      | Airtel                                 | 523847                                                                                                           | 512278                                                          | 26252                                                          | 11569                             | 3                         | 4                                                              | 1                                          | 0                                                  |
| Basic Cellular                                 | BSNL                                   | 395991                                                                                                           | 319894                                                          | 227736                                                         | 76097                             | 0                         | 0                                                              | 0                                          | 0                                                  |
| Basic Cellular                                 | BSNL                                   | NA                                                                                                               | NA                                                              | NA                                                             | NA                                | NA                        | NA                                                             | NA                                         | NA                                                 |
| Broadband                                      | BSNL                                   | 181335                                                                                                           | 163323                                                          | 92955                                                          | 18012                             | 0                         | 0                                                              | 0                                          | 0                                                  |
| Cellular                                       | IDEA                                   | 3443525                                                                                                          | 3396380                                                         | 225150                                                         | 47145                             | 49                        | 52                                                             | 0                                          | 6                                                  |
| Basic Cellular                                 | MTNL                                   | 657382                                                                                                           | 639400                                                          | 7347                                                           | 17982                             | 0                         | 0                                                              | 0                                          | 0                                                  |
| Basic Cellular                                 | MTNL                                   | 26887                                                                                                            | 22404                                                           | 2893                                                           | 4483                              | 3                         | 3                                                              | 0                                          | 3                                                  |
| Broadband                                      | MTNL                                   | 248999                                                                                                           | 226499                                                          | 3021                                                           | 22500                             | 0                         | 0                                                              | 0                                          | 0                                                  |
| Basic                                          | Quadrant                               | 22247                                                                                                            | 22174                                                           | 44                                                             | 73                                | 0                         | 0                                                              | 0                                          | 0                                                  |
| Broadband                                      | Quadrant                               | 11981                                                                                                            | 11570                                                           | 825                                                            | 411                               | 0                         | 0                                                              | 0                                          |                                                    |
| Cellular                                       | Reliance Jio                           | 1712922                                                                                                          | 1696332                                                         | 20531                                                          | 16590                             | 895                       | 1181                                                           | 0                                          | 240                                                |
| Basic                                          | Tata                                   | 31062                                                                                                            | 31062                                                           | 3757                                                           | 0                                 | 4                         | 4                                                              | 0                                          | 0                                                  |
| Broadband                                      | Tata                                   | 33045                                                                                                            | 31497                                                           | 6988                                                           | 1548                              | 0                         | 0                                                              | 0                                          | 0                                                  |
| Broadband                                      | Tata Sky                               | 25931                                                                                                            | 25931                                                           | 0                                                              | 0                                 | 0                         | 0                                                              | 0                                          | 0                                                  |
| Cellular                                       | Vodafone                               | 3181514                                                                                                          | 3120042                                                         | 263060                                                         | 61472                             | 217                       | 224                                                            | 16                                         | 8                                                  |

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