Lok Sabha Question No. 147 (STARRED), answered on 2015-12-09
Subject: Quality of Telecom Services
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY, JYOTIRADITYA MADHAVRAO SCINDIA

## MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.147 TO BE ANSWERED ON 9 th  December, 2015

## QUALITY OF TELECOM SERVICES

## *147. SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY: SHRI JYOTIRADITYA M. SCINDIA:

Will  the  Minister  of  COMMUNICATIONS  AND  INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken cognizance of the rise in complaints and other grievances of consumers against telecom operators for the deficient and unsatisfactory services;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the remedial measures taken by the telecom operators in pursuance with the directions of TRAI to improve customers' satisfaction along with penalties imposed, if any, on the telecom companies for the same;
- (c) whether the telecom service providers are adhering to the norms laid down for quality  of  telecom  services  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  if  not,  the  corrective measures being taken by the Government in this regard;
- (d) whether the Government proposes to amend TRAI Act, 1997 so as to empower it to  take  stringent  action  against  the  telecom  operators  for  violation  of  norms  and guidelines and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the action taken/being taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) to  (e) A Statement  is laid on the table of the House.

## STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.147 FOR 9 th December, 2015 REGARDING 'QUALITY OF TELECOM SERVICES'.

(a) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken cognizance of the rise in complaints and other grievances of consumers against telecom operators.

(b) & (c) TRAI Act 1997 does not envisage of handling of individual complaints by TRAI.  However, based on consumer complaints received in TRAI, TRAI has issued a number  of  Directions,  Regulations  and  Orders  to  protect  the  interest  of  consumers. These Directions, Regulations and Orders are complied with by the service providers & TRAI monitors and ensure such compliance by service providers.  Recently, TRAI has issued the Telecom Consumers Protection (Eighth Amendment) Regulations, 2015 to address customers  concerns  relating to activation/deactivation of data services, provision  of  information  relating  to  data  usage  etc.  These  regulations  are  being complied with by the service providers.

For addressing the grievances of the consumers relating to call drop, TRAI had notified 'The Telecom Consumers Protection (Ninth Amendment) Regulations, 2015 (9 of 2015) on 16 th October 2015, to compensate consumers. These regulations mandate originating  TSPs  to  credit  one  Rupee  for  a  dropped  call  to  the  calling  consumers  as notional compensation, limited to three dropped calls in a day.  These regulations will be effective from 1 st January 2016.

TRAI  has  been  monitoring  the  performance  of  service  providers,  against  the quality  of  service  benchmarks for  the  various  parameters  laid  down  by  TRAI  through Quality  of  Service  Regulations  issued  from  time  to  time,  through  compliance  reports submitted by the service providers on monthly/quarterly basis.

As  per  the  performance  monitoring  report  for  the  quarter  ending  September 2015, for cellular mobile telephone services 2G/3G, most of the  service providers are meeting the benchmarks related to the parameters for its 2G/3G services.  For 2G/3G services,  non-compliance  with  the  benchmarks  is  mostly  observed  in  respect  of  the parameters (1) 'Worst affected cells having more than 3% Traffic Channel(TCH) drop (call drop) rate/and circuit switched voice drop rate' (2) 'Worst affected  Base Transmission Station(BTSs)/Node-B's due to downtime.' In respect of Customer service parameters for 2G services, non-compliance with the benchmark is observed in respect of  parameter (1) '%age of  calls answered by the operators (voice to voice) within 90 seconds' (2) 'Time taken for refund of deposits after closures'

As per the performance monitoring report for the quarter ending June, 2015 for Basic (Wireline) / Broadband services, all the service providers are generally meeting the  benchmarks  related  to  the  parameters  for  its  Basic/Broadband  services.    NonCompliance with the benchmarks is mainly observed in respect of the parameters (1) 'Response time to the customer for assistance %age of calls answered by the operators (voice to voice) within 90 seconds.:

Contd…….3/-

For  ensuring  quality  of  service,  TRAI  is  closely  monitoring  the  performance  of service  providers  against  the  quality  of  service  benchmarks.  TRAI  has  structured mechanism  for  imposing  financial  disincentive.  Wherever  the  Quality of  Service benchmarks are not met the explanation of the service providers is called for and after considering  the  response  of  the  service  provider  financial  disincentive  are  imposed. Upto June 2015, a sum of  Rs 9.7 crore has been collected by TRAI. TRAI has now made financial disincentives more stringent in cases of continuous non compliance with the bench mark for  mobile services. TRAI has been perusing with service providers for improving  Quality  of  Service  and  in  this  regard  regular  interactions  are  held  with  the service  providers.    TRAI  has  also  engaged  independent  agencies  for  auditing  and assessing  the  quality  of  service  and  surveys  are  being  done  regularly  through independent agencies to assess the customer perception of service.  The results of the audit and assessment of quality of service and surveys are published for the information of stakeholders, which also force the service providers to improve the quality of service.

In  addition  to  above,  elaborate  testing  of  Mobile  service  operators'  Network  is being  done  by  Department  of  Telecommunication(DoT).  Fortnightly  review  is  being done  at  the  highest  level  in  DoT.  Signs  of  improvements  are  already  there  and Operators are required to take further initiatives  for addressing call drop issue.

(d) & (e) Department is  working  on  Comprehensive  legislative  proposal  to  review and harmonise the legal frame work.

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