TRAI asks telecom companies to improve service quality

Asking telecom service providers to improve the quality of services, TRAI on Friday said it is working on tightening quality of services norms.

TRAI, which held meetings with the representatives of the telecom companies to discuss the complaints on call drops, also asked telecom companies to report state-level data on call drops.

TRAI has directed that while rolling out the 5G network, the existing services should not be degraded. The regulator has asked telecom companies to maintain high standards of service while also working to upgrade their infrastructure for the next-generation network.

TRAI chief P D Vaghela, who chaired the meeting, told reporters that the regulator will make the service quality standards more stringent.

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To start with, TRAI will monitor call drop data at the state level too, immediately.

At present, the data is collected LSA (licensed service area)-wise and averaged quarterly. This makes it difficult to pinpoint problems and patchy networks in smaller states. The reporting of data at the state level, and at some point perhaps, district level too, is bound to improve service quality.

“The telecom companies were asked to analyse the issue of call muting and one-way speech and take corrective action on priority. While rolling out the 5G network, telecom service providers should ensure that there is the least disturbance or degradation of the quality of existing telecom services,” said an official from TRAI.

“TRAI is monitoring the incidents of long-duration network outages. All telecom providers were asked to report such outages to TRAI in any district or state. The TRAI may consider bringing suitable regulations in this regard if required,” said the official.

TRAI also asked the telecom firms to plan and implement systems for online data collection for quality of service benchmarks and their processing to generate performance reports with license service area, state level or lower level. This will simplify the process of quality of service performance reporting by telecom firms and thereby reduce compliance burden, the TRAI said.

The regulator also asked the companies to implement a system for the internal quality of service monitoring telecom service providers on a 24x7 and 360-degree basis.