Trai Imposes Rs 34 Lakh Fine on Reliance Jio for Not Meeting Service Quality Norms During March Quarter

Airtel’s penalty is most likely for not meeting the quality of norms relating to metering and billing (postpaid), the percentage of calls answered by telcos and the availability of call centres and customer care. The same parameters apply to Idea Cellular as well. In the case of Vodafone, the penalties are levied for not metering and billing (pre-paid), amount of calls answered by operators in a particular timeframe and time taken to comply with a particular request.

The report also added that Airtel did not bother to comment on the penalty, while Vodafone and Idea Cellular did not respond to the e-mail queries on the issue.

Trai Measured Penalties Based on New Call Quality Norms

For months now, Trai stated that it’s in the final stages of penalising telcos based on the new call norms issued back in October 2017. Finally, it issued the penalty. However, do make a note that Trai did not inform the amount of penalty issued to the operators in public and it even confirmed that the data wouldn’t be revealed on its website or any medium.

According to the new quality of service norms issued by Trai last year, call drops will be measured at each tower level, rather than the earlier telecom circle level. Trai issued new norms because the old call quality measuring norms had many hidden issues. Aforesaid, these penalties are for the March quarter, which means between January 2018 to March 2018.