Over 26,400 complaints received against telcos by Trai during Nov-Jan: Govt

The government is considering setting up a telecom Ombudsman for addressing consumer grievances, said Sanjay Dhotre in the Lok Sabha

Regulator Trai received over 26,400 complaints against telecom companies during January-November this year, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The number of similar complaints received by the government stood at 44,890 during the 11-month period, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"Trai Act, 1997 does not envisage handling of individual consumer complaints by Trai. However, complaints received in Trai (Telecom regulatory Authority of India) are forwarded to concerned service provider for appropriate action," Dhotre said.

He further said the government is considering setting up a telecom Ombudsman for addressing consumer grievances.

To another question, he said over 1.6 lakh mobile towers were added across the country by telecom operators during December 2015-November 2019.

"The government has taken several policy initiatives to facilitate infrastructure growth which include permitting trading/sharing/ liberalisation of spectrum, permitting passive and active infrastructure sharing, notification of Right of Way Rules 2016, making available government land/buildings for installations of towers etc," he said.

As a result, around 15.57 lakh additional base transceiver stations (BTSs) for 2G/3G/4G-LTE services were added during April 2014 (6.49 lakh) to November 2019 (22.06 lakh). Also, 1.67 lakh mobile towers were added during December 2015 (4.15 lakh) to November 2019 (5.82 lakh) period, he added.

To another question, Dhotre said the standards for International Mobile Telecommunications 2020, also known as 5G technologies in industry, are being finalised.