The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has reportedly imposed penalties on leading telecom operators- Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular for missing the Quality of Service (QoS) norms during March quarter. According to sources close to PTI, Trai has imposed fines based on the new parameters and it also covered various service areas. Furthermore, the report added the telcos are in the process of clearing the fines. The maximum penalty has been imposed on Reliance Jio which is about Rs 34 lakh.
Penalty on Reliance Jio is Defined on Various Service Quality Parameters
The PTI source close to Trai said the penalty of about Rs 34 lakh imposed on Reliance Jio is based on Trai' service quality parameters which include Point of Interconnect (POI) congestion, amount of voice calls answered by operators in a defined timeframe and accessibility of call centres or customer support to the users. PTI also sent emails to Reliance Jio on this information, but the telco did not answer to the queries.
Bharti Airtel Fined Around Rs 11 Lakh
While Reliance Jio faced the highest penalty, Bharti Airtel also took some penalty of Rs 11 lakh during the same quarter, according to the same PTI report. And for Idea Cellular, the fine is said to be around Rs 12 lakh, and the same for Vodafone is around Rs 4 lakh.
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.
