Trai Issues Showcause Notice to Airtel for Disrupting Service in Middle of Migration Process

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which introduced a new tariff mandate last year had warned the DTH operators and cable service providers that the consumers should not be shown a black screen in case they have sufficient balance in their accounts during the migration process to the new packs. However, as per the latest update from PTI, Airtel has received a show-cause notice from the regulator as consumers reported facing a black screen while they were migrating to the new Trai based plans. Trai has taken care not to reveal the name of the operator to stay away from a media outbreak.

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Airtel in Tight Spot Due to Disrupted Services

Trai in its statement said, “The Authority has issued an explicit direction to all the service providers to ensure that there are no interruptions…in cases where subscribers are availing pre-paid service, no disruption of service will be caused, if there is a credit balance available in the subscriber’s wallet/account…However, the Authority received information that while migrating consumers, one large service provider has caused a blackout on the TV screen of a few thousand subscribers. Taking a serious view, the Authority has issued show cause notice to that service provider.”

And the big DTH provider is Airtel Digital TV, according to Press Trust of India. The showcause notice was issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) earlier this week, and Airtel has been given three days time to respond, PTI reported. When contacted by PTI, an Airtel spokesperson said a few customers might have experienced delays in the provisioning of channels, owing to a massive surge in last minute requests during migration, and that the service provider remains committed to ensuring compliance with all regulatory norms.

Another problem which the consumers and DTH operators have been facing alike is the issue of heavy traffic on the DTH operator’s websites and call centres. Because of the large number of subscribers vying to switch to new Trai based plans, the DTH operators are not able to handle the traffic on their sites thus resulting in crashed web-page for the consumers. Same is the situation for call centres of these providers.