TRAI Mandates Stricter QoS Standards for Indian Telecom Providers, Effective October 2024

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released revised regulations titled The Standards of Quality of Service of Access (Wirelines and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Regulations, 2024. These regulations are applicable to Access (Fixed and Mobile) and Broadband services, TRAI said.

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Key Changes and Implementation Details

Effective October 1, 2024, the new regulations consolidate and replace the older standards for Basic and Cellular Mobile Services, Broadband Services, and Wireless Data Services. This move aims to address the current technological landscape, including technologies such as 4G, 5G, and high-speed broadband services on fibre, and ensure high-quality service delivery amid rapid advancements in telecom technology.

With the new regulations, service providers are now required to display technology-specific (2G/3G/4G/5G) mobile coverage maps on their websites to enable consumers to make informed decisions.

Enhanced Transparency and Reporting

Additionally, to ensure transparency in QoS performance reporting, service providers have been mandated to publish QoS performance data on their websites.

The benchmark for latency parameters has been aligned with global standards, and new parameters for jitter and packet drop rate have been introduced.

To address network issues, the QoS performance of mobile services will now be monitored monthly instead of quarterly, TRAI said. To ensure a smooth transition to the new reporting standards, service providers have been given six months from the effective date of regulation.

Furthermore, to gain insights at a granular level, TRAI will now collect performance data against certain parameters, such as network availability, call drop rates, and voice packet drop rates in uplink and downlink, on a cell level.