Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today revealed its plans to strengthen its MySpeed app. The My Speed app of Trai measures mobile data speeds of Indian telecom operators. Recently, the application was criticized by the operators saying that the testing methodology is wrong.
RS Sharma, the Chairman of Trai said that the regulator is looking to make the evaluation method more transparent after consultation with operators. He also confirmed that a white paper on underlying methodology and algorithms used by the application will be released very soon.
"We have also contacted Ookla and others. We are trying to understand what their methods are ... We would like all stakeholders to sit together and come to a conclusion over most appropriate methodology," the Trai chairman said.
In addition, Trai will be taking suggestions from the telecom operators on the said issue. "We will sit together with the operators and take their suggestions as what should be an agreed methodology so there are no such complaints," Sharma said on the sidelines of the Trai's open house discussion on 'data speed under wireless broadband plans'.
Trai's MySpeed app constantly rated Reliance Jio as the fastest LTE network in India, but on the other side, Airtel was rated as the fastest network in India by Ookla. This even made the newcomer to lodge a complaint against Bharti Airtel and Ookla. However, Ookla' speed test results showed Reliance Jio is offering very slow LTE speeds in India.
After a few months, Trai said that it will be approaching private firms such as Ookla and others to revamp the testing methodology of its application.
Trai is making huge strides in strengthening its services. Recently, the regulator strengthened the service quality norms for voice calls, and now the regulator's focus has shifted towards revamping the data speeds measuring experience in India.
"There was a large number of quality of service (norms) for voice (offerings) like call drops. Data has recently started becoming prominent, and voice is now an application on top of data. So there is a need to have much better grip on the QoS in the data world," he added.
As said earlier, Trai will release a white paper by the end of this month, which consists Trai's views on data speed issue. "Work on both the aspects will happen simultaneously," added Sharma.
