Trai Hits Jio, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular With Fine Due to Non-Compliance of QoS Norms

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) often referred as the watchdog of the industry has taken stringent action by fining the big telcos like Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel for not adhering to the norms of quality of service. The fine levied on these telecom operators is applicable for the breaching of quality benchmarks in the December 2017 quarter. The Mukesh Ambani-led telco, Reliance Jio, whose prepaid data introduction kicked off an aggressive data tariff war might now pay a fine upwards of Rs 31 lakh. Trai has remarked that the telcos were penalised due to keeping aside service parameters like Point of Interconnect congestion, accessibility of call centres and customer care. Also, it added that timely termination of the closure of services, which is usually seven days, was also taken into consideration while fining the telcos. An email to Reliance Jio sent by PTI enquiring about the fine went unanswered. The breaching of quality parameters concerns all the circles in which the telco operates.

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Trai chairman RS Sharma has also been vocal about fining the telcos in the past, in case they do not abide by the quality guidelines laid down by the regulator. He said that “financial disincentive” is the way to go this time since, in the December quarter of 2017, the telcos have breached handful of quality norms.

It was in October 2017, when Trai tightened the law regarding the quality of service (QoS) and guided the telcos to adhere to the set benchmark. The new rule dictated that measurement of calls drops must happen on the mobile tower level instead of telecom circle level. Trai had speculated that averaging of the data collected over an entire circle would cover up many faults and loopholes.