Lok Sabha Question No. 1815 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-07-27
Subject: Internet Speed and Cost
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: P. KARUNAKARAN, M. B. RAJESH, RAKESH SINGH, ANTO  ANTONY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1815 TO BE ANSWERED ON 27 TH  JULY, 2016

## INTERNET SPEED AND COST

1815.  SHRI P. KARUNAKARAN:

SHRI M.B. RAJESH:

SHRI RAKESH SINGH:

SHRI ANTO ANTONY:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the internet speed in the country is generally very low and the cost of Internet service is very high;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has taken note of the fact that many of the telecom service providers in the country fail to adhere to minimum speed for Internet data;
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the complaints received in this regard; and
- (e) the  action  taken  by  the  Government  to  expand  network  at  prescribed  speed and provide Internet facilities/data plan at affordable rate to people?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) & (b) India has a global rank of 114 in terms of average connection speed as per Akamai's Report on 'The State of the internet' for Q1, 2016.

Further,  as  per  the  existing  tariff  framework  prescribed  by  TRAI,  tariff  for internet service is under forbearance and the service providers have the flexibility to decide  the  tariff  for  different  service  areas  of  their  operation.  Tariffs  are  offered  by service  providers  taking  into  account  several  factors  including  input  costs,  level  of competition and other commercial considerations. Hike and reduction of different tariff components by telecom service providers are a regular feature and these changes vary for different plans/special tariff vouchers and service areas.

The cost of internet service for the end user depends on several factors like the  type  of  service  (narrowband/broadband),  platform  of  services  (wireline  and wireless)  and  grades  of  technology  (2G/3G/4G).  The  tariffs  offered  for  internet services also vary based on the subscription mode (postpaid or prepaid), the service area, tariff plans chosen, time of usage (peak/off peak) etc.

Further,  subscribers  have  options  to  avail  lower  tariffs  through  the  use  of Special Tariff Vouchers (STVs), Combo Vouchers (CVs) offered by service providers. Such vouchers provide discounted tariffs and/or certain quantity of free usage in lieu of  an  upfront  pack  charges  and  these  vouchers  have  to  be  used  within  stipulated period which may vary from one day to ninety days.

(c) & (d) The Quality of Service for Broadband Service Regulations, 2006 issued by TRAI has prescribed the parameter 'Broadband Connection Speed (download)', to assess the performance of service providers on provision of download speed to users in accordance with the subscribed speed. The benchmark for this parameter is that the  Subscribed  Broadband  Connection  Speed from  Internet  Service  Provider  (ISP) Node  to  User  to  be  met  should  be  >80%  of  subscribed  speed.    As  per  the performance monitoring report for the quarter ending March 2016 issued by TRAI all the service providers are meeting the benchmark for this parameter.

For  wireless  data  services,  TRAI  has  prescribed  the  Quality  of  Service Standards through 'The Standards of Quality of Service for Wireless Data Services Regulations,  2012'  on  4 th December 2012.  These  regulations  do  not  prescribe  any minimum  speed  to  be  given  by  cellular  mobile  Telephone  Service  Providers. However,  the  regulations  mandate  the  service  providers  to  specify  the  minimum download  speed  in  all  their  tariff  offers  and  that  such  minimum  download  speed should be met for not less than 80% of the usage time.

The  service  providers  had  been  representing  to  TRAI  about  the  difficulty  in offering a minimum download speed to consumers.  TRAI held several meetings with the  service  providers  in  this  regard  and  decided  to  develop  a  mobile  app  named 'TRAI  My  Speed'.  This  application  allows  customers  to  measure  their  data  speed experience  and  sends  the  results  to  TRAI.  The  application  captures  and  sends coverage, data speed and other network information along with device and location of the  tests.  The  app  does  not  send  any  personal  user  information.  All  results  are reported anonymously. This app is available for both Android and iOS platforms. The app could be downloaded from the mobile seva App store in the Google App store.

The  Service  Provider-wise  details  of  complaints  against  Poor  speed  of Broadband/Internet received in TRAI during the last three years and the current year is at Annexure-I .

(e) National  Optical  Fibre  Network  (NOFN)  project,  renamed  as  BharatNet,  is planned  to  establish  a  network  infrastructure by connecting  all  Gram  Panchayats (approx.  2.5  lakh)  in  the  country  through  Optical  Fibre  Cable  (OFC) by  using  an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media, for providing  broadband  connectivity  by  all  categories  of  service  providers  on  nondiscriminatory  basis. With  the  implementation  of  BharatNet  project,  which  is  one  of the  pillars  of  Digital  India,  non-discriminatory  access  to  all  categories  of  service providers  including  internet  service  providers  will  be  available  at  Gram  Panchayats with  no  investment  to  lay  the  optical  fibre  infrastructure.  It  is  expected  that  it  will promote internet and broadband usage in rural and remote areas at affordable rates. As  on  16.07.2016,  Optical  Fibre  Cable  (OFC)  has  been  laid  to  54,635  Gram Panchayats (GPs) with a total length of 1,26,853 km. Out of these, 7342 GPs have been provided with broadband connectivity.

Service Provider-wise number of complaints against Poor Speed of Broadband/ Internet received in TRAI during the last three years and current year

|   S# | Service Provider                      |   2013 |   2014 |   2015 |   2016(1.1.2016 to 30.06.2016) |
|------|---------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------------------------------|
|    1 | Aircel*                               |      1 |     20 |     16 |                              3 |
|    2 | BSNL                                  |     15 |     53 |     84 |                             33 |
|    3 | Bharti Airtel*                        |     10 |     23 |     86 |                            111 |
|    4 | HFCL/ Quadrant                        |      0 |      0 |      2 |                              0 |
|    5 | Idea*                                 |      1 |      2 |     21 |                             17 |
|    6 | MTNL                                  |     11 |     10 |     42 |                              7 |
|    7 | Reliance*                             |      8 |     46 |    163 |                             35 |
|    8 | Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd. (MTS) |      2 |    118 |    194 |                             76 |
|    9 | Tata*                                 |      7 |     14 |     90 |                             18 |
|   10 | Videocon                              |      0 |      0 |      1 |                              0 |
|   11 | Vodafone                              |      2 |     53 |     69 |                             26 |

* Includes group companies

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