Trai now trains guns on quality of data services

Launches MySpeed App for users to measure mobile internet speed and send the results to a Trai Analytics Portal

In a consumer-centric move, sectoral regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Tuesday launched a mobile app which will check internet speed in real-time on their handsets as also it announced to come out with a consultation process for fixing the quality of service norms for wireless data soon. The mobile app will send the data automatically on Trai’s analytics portal, where anybody can see the data.

The regulator will use the data collected from subscribers to fix new quality of service norms for which the process is likely to start in a month.

“We will start the consultation process soon to fix quality of service benchmark for wireless data. Through the application (Trai Myspeed App) we will get real-time data from customers. This will be put on Trai Analytics Portal. It will show mobile data speed of each operator in a given area on real-time basis,” Trai Chairman R S Sharma said.

The idea behind the app is that customers should know about the experience of their as well as other networks in order to select the best mobile operator in their locality.

The app is a kind of crowd-sourcing initiative to check network performance of all the mobile operators.

In 2014, Trai had issued norms under which it asked telecom operators to indicate minimum download speed that can be provided to consumers. However, telecom operators have complained to the regulator that as per 'law of physics' they cannot ensure minimum speed.

Sharma said though there are benchmarks on call drops, there are no corresponding benchmark in data world.

Earlier, Trai had come down heavily on telecom service providers on the issue of call drops and had asked operators to compensate customers for call drops. The Trai order, was however, quashed by Supreme Court.