India Broadband Forum

icar

All telcos have opposed sector regulator Trai's plans to introduce 'special quality of service (QoS) norms' for mobile services to monitor their performance over parameters such as call drops, fault repair, refunds and billing complaints.

Telcos say that 'such norms should not form a part of regulations' because 'the competitive market forces operators to address quality issues to survive and retain their customers'.

Besides, they have also told Trai that since mobile number portability (where consumers to retain their number when they change their operator) is slated to be introduced this year, such regulations will have no relevance.

But, Trai is not impressed with telcos' views and is likely to go ahead and specify QoS norms to protect the interests of consumers. The regulator will take a final call after meeting telcos on this issue.

Responding to the Trai proposal, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the industry lobby representing GSM players said that the in an ultra competitive scenario, QoS is driven by market forces rather than by regulatory intervention.

"Even internationally, mostly the regulators do not specify the QoS parameters. Rather than introducing new or additional parameters for QoS, our aim should be to progressively reduce the parameters reported to Trai," COAI added.

Ditto with Bharti Airtel, India's largest telco, which is pointed out that country, in addition to having the maximum number of service providers in an area, also enjoyed the lowest tariffs and market forces would therefore 'drive the cause the customers' welfare'.

Companies such as Reliance Communications are of the view that regulatory intervention is not required as telcos were already 'pursuing marketing strategies designed to differentiate their brand from rival offerings based on dimensions of service quality such as superior network coverage, reliability, and voice quality'.

Tata Teleservices, while calling for minimum regulation, has pointed out that several factors that impact service quality were not in operators' hands. "Some aspects such as spectrum shortage, regular availability of power supply, and steady supply or availability of human resources particularly in rural areas are beyond the control of the telco," the company said.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Telcos-oppose-TRAIs-quality-service-norm/articleshow/4156537.cms

panchabhut

the reaction of the operators are very much on expected lines

Gary4gar

TRAI should implement it, it for good of consumers

cool_techie_tvm

WTH? Since we are enjoying the lowest tariffs we are entitled to cheap infrastructure management? Good thinking Airtel !!