Trai chief rules out any rethink on new service quality norms for users

Telecom regulator TRAI on Wednesday ruled out any rethink of new service quality norms that require telcos to compensate users for service outages and raise penalties for not meeting benchmarks.

TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said that the norms have been issued after a thorough consultation and due consideration.

"We have done very long thinking on this process, the norms have been issued after thorough consultation and due consideration and have been issued keeping in view quality of service that customer should be getting, and that service provider should provide," Lahoti said on sidelines of India SatCom 2024 organised by Broadband India Forum (BIF).

The TRAI Chief was replying to a question on whether the regulator would rethink its new norms on service quality.

Lahoti further said TRAI expects service providers to upgrade their infrastructure so that consumer gets the right quality of service.

It is pertinent to mention that telecom operators will have to compensate subscribers in case of service outages for more than 24 hours at a district level under the new quality of service rules issued by the sector regulator Trai on Friday.

Trai has also increased the penal amount to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 50,000 for failing to meet each quality benchmark under the new rules.

The regulator has introduced a graded penalty system of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for different scales of rule violations under revised regulations --"The Standards of Quality of Service of Access (Wirelines and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Regulations, 2024".

The new norms supersede three different regulations -- Quality of Service (QoS) for basic and cellular mobile services, broadband services, and broadband wireless services.