Telecom regulator TRAI has call a meeting with telcos on 17th February 2023 to discuss measures and action plan for improving service quality, review of norms, benchmarks for 5G services, and unsolicite commercial communications.
This meeting assumes significance as improvement in telecom service quality is bound to cheer mobile customers, call drops and patchy networks.
It also comes at a time when ultra high speed 5G services are rolling out across India.
As many as 200 cities in India have seen launch of 5G services, the next generation of technology that promises turbocharge speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and low latency connectivity.
Issues around service quality have in the spotlight over the last few months.
The Telecom Department back in December met operators to discuss rising instances of call drops and service quality-related issues, as it deliberate on policy measures that can be consider for improving call quality.
In a statement, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said that quality of service (QoS) improvement “is an ongoing exercise, it requires close assessment and monitoring especially with the fast-pace network expansion and introduction of latest technology like 5G.”
TRAI has call a meeting with telecom service providers on 17th February, 2023, “to discuss measures and action plan for improvement in QoS, review of QoS standards, QoS of 5G services and unsolicite commercial communications”.
India, the world’s second largest smartphone market, had over 114 crore mobile subscribers as of November 2022.
Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea are the key players.
TRAI monitors performance of various connectivity services provide by telecom operators by collecting Performance Monitoring Report (PMR) on quarterly basis.
The PMRs are publish on the TRAI website, and the regulator also conducts audits and assessments to gauge the performance of the service providers in respect of the prescribed QoS benchmark.
As per TRAI statement :
“Regular interactions are held with concerned stakeholders through meetings, consultation papers and open house discussion to review the status of QoS and measures to further improve the consumer experience,”.
On 28th December 2022, the Department of Telecom had held discussions with telcos to identify policy and operational measures that can help improve the quality of telecom services in India.
That meeting was chair by Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman and attend by telecom service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea.
The issue of interference from illegal boosters and Right of Way (RoW) challenges had come up for discussion then, and operators had made a detail presentation to the government on current levels of service quality against stipulate benchmarks.
Industry sources had said the DoT flag consumer complaints on service quality at the meeting, and add that companies maintain that quality of service norms were being met.
The industry also mention locations that are facing specific problems, due to signal interference or other factors.
Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw indicate that telecom service quality parameters could be made more stringent and tighter, possibly to the extent of 3-4 times.
Ashwini Vaishnaw had exhort the industry, including telecom operators and infrastructure providers, to move “full steam ahead” on improving the quality of services in the country, now that a slew of reforms have been announce and more are being propose.
Ashwini Vaishnaw Said :
“You can’t clap with only one hand, both hands are need. It cannot be that just we keep doing what you ask. You also have to do what we ask,”.
“I will be requesting the (Telecom) Department to send a new consultation paper to TRAI for significantly increasing the quality of service parameters almost making 3X or 4X of what it is today, so whatever is the quality of service we are seeing, should now improve significantly,”.
