MANU/TRAI/0073/2015

Department/Board : Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Press Release No. : 57/2015

Date : 15.10.2015

TRAI releases The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2015

TRAI today issued "The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2015" prescribing graded financial disincentive for repeated non-compliance by Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Providers.

2. For strengthening the effectiveness and compliance of regulations, TRAI had prescribed financial disincentives on basic service (wireline) and cellular mobile telephone service providers through "The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2015". As per these regulations, financial disincentive is imposed on cellular mobile telephone service providers for non-compliance with the benchmarks for network related parameters at the rate of Rs. 50,00 per parameter for violation of the first instance and Rs. 1 lakh per parameter for violation of subsequent instances. For non-compliance with the customer related parameters the financial disincentives imposed is Rs. 50,000 per parameter.

3. From the monitoring of performance of cellular mobile telephone service providers TRAI observed that the present amount of financial disincentives has not acted as a sufficient deterrent against non-compliance as there have been repeated consecutive cases of non-compliance with the benchmarks. TRAI, therefore, proposed for public consultations on the enhanced financial disincentive to create further deterrent against repeated non-compliance through draft "The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2015" released on TRAI website. on 28.1.2015. After considering the comments received from stakeholders during public consultation, TRAI today issued "The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2015" prescribing the following revised financial disincentives on cellular mobile telephone service providers for non-compliance with the benchmarks for both network and customer related parameters:-

(i) Not exceeding Rupees one lakh per parameter for first non-compliance with the benchmarks in a quarter;

(ii) Non-compliance with the benchmark of the same parameter consecutively in two or more subsequent quarters, not exceeding Rupees one and a half lakhs for second consecutive contravention and not exceeding Rupees two lakhs for each consecutive contravention thereof;

(iii) Non-compliance with the ........