Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

04.12.2017

Media and Communication

TRAI releases Recommendations on 'Network Testing before Commercial Launch of Services'

MANU/TRAI/0110/2017

1. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today issued its Recommendations on 'Network Testing before Commercial Launch of Services'.

2. The Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) are required to install applicable systems for providing mobile services to the subscribers. A TSP has to ensure that its service meets the Quality of Service (QoS) standards prescribed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Therefore, it is important that all applicable systems are tested before commencement of commercial service.

3. DoT, through its letter dated 9th September 2016, communicated that at present, network testing is being carried out by licensees on the basis of erstwhile practices followed by DoT/BSNL; and test SIM Cards are issued by such licensees to check the quality of network before the commercial launch of services. The present licences for various services issued by DoT do not prescribe any time period for network testing before commercial launch of services by the licensees. Therefore, DoT requested the Authority to provide its recommendations on testing of network before commercial launch of services including enrolment of customers for testing purposes before commercial launch, duration of testing period etc.

4. In this regard, a consultation paper was released on 1st May 2017, wherein various issues involved and the possible framework to bring clarity on the matter were discussed and the stakeholders were requested to provide their comments and counter-comments. TRAI received comments from 16 stakeholders and counter-comments from 3 stakeholders. These were posted on TRAI's website. An Open House Discussion was conducted on 18th August 2017. Based on the comments received and internal analysis, TRAI has finalized its recommendations. The key recommendations are:

a) A TSP should be allowed to enrol test subscribers in testing phase to carry out the network testing before commercial launch of its services.

b) The number of test subscribers that can be enrolled by a TSP in an LSA should be limited to 5% of its installed network capacity for that LSA. The service provider will submit the detailed capacity calculations of the network to DoT and TRAI atleast 15 days before commencing enrolment of test subscribers.

c) There should be a limit of 90 days on the test phase involving test subscribers. However, if the TSP fails to conclude network testing due to valid reasons, it may make a representation to the Licensor, seeking additional time for network testing giving detailed justification, which may be decided by the Licensor on case to case basis.

d) If a TSP wants to enrol test subscribers, it should give prior intimation to DoT and TRAI atleast 15 days before commencing enrolment of test subscribers.

e) All licensing provisions related to the security and privacy such as ensuring adequate verification of each and every customer before enrolling him as a subscriber, protection and privacy of communication, maintaining Call Detail Record (CDR)/IP Detail Record (IPDR), Confidentiality of Information, Lawful interception & monitoring etc. must be complied with by the licensee.

f) MNP facility should not be extended to network under testing.

g) If a TSP wants to enrol test subscribers for the testing of its network, it should transparently give the following information to the test subscribers at the time of their enrolment:

(i) During test phase, TSP is not mandated to adhere to specified level of QoS. Therefore, there may be sub-optimal level of network performance.

(ii) The scope of services during the test period.

(iii) MNP facility won't be available till the services are commercially launched.

(iv) There won't be any charge (fixed charge or usage based charge) during the test phase.

(v) Likely date of commercial launch.

5. For any clarification/information, Shri S.T. Abbas, Advisor (Networks, Spectrum and Licensing) may be contacted at Tel. No.+91-11-23210481 or e-mail advmn@trai.gov.in.

Tags : Recommendations Release Network Testing

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