NEW DELHI: The country’s telecom regulator is considering stricter rules for poor-quality services by telecom operators. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is reviewing the quality of service (QoS) of telecom operators and would examine if the regulation needs to be stricter. A senior TRAI official told this newspaper if needed they would levy heavier penalties.
“We will soon review the quality of services provided by the telecom operators. After the launch of 5G, it has come to our notice that there are instances of call drops in many areas. Thus, we will examine if we need to strict our parameters,” said the official. However, the official also admitted that telcos should not be burdened with too harsh regulations as ‘they also need a space to breathe’.
As per the rule, at least 97 per cent of BTS (Base Transceiver Station) should be in working condition in a given area or LSA (Licensed Service Area) to avoid penalties. In case the telecom operators don’t fulfil these criteria, they are liable for penalties, which start from Rs 50,000 per parameter, and go up to several lakhs. A few years back, the telecom regulator came up with a regulation for call drops making it mandatory for telecom companies to compensate subscribers for call drops.
However, the apex court struck down the Trai regulation calling it “arbitrary, unreasonable and non-transparent. Ever since the telecom operators -- Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel-- have started deploying the 5G networks, the instances of call drop have increased manifold.
Recently, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) met with all the telecom operators and asked them to improve their services. Another official from Trai reasoned that it is just teething trouble and will improve once the telcos deploy the entire network. He also said the problem was more in 2G, and 3G but not in 4G or 5G.
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