MANU/TRAI/0110/2017

Department/Board : Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Press Release No. : 103/2017

Date : 04.12.2017

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

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 net........