TRAI imposed Rs 5 cr fine in 2013 for poor service, pesky calls

Telecom regulator TRAI imposed fines totaling about Rs 5 crore in 2013 on operators for poor services and on telemarketers for pesky calls.

The regulator disconnected 9 lakh numbers and blacklisted over 1.74 lakh unregistered individuals for making pesky calls and SMSes during the year.

"Rs 2.8 crore financial disincentive was imposed across all telecom operators for failing to meet quality of services (QoS) benchmark in 2013. However, there has been improvement in quality of services," TRAI's Advisor for QoS, A Robert Jerad Ravi said.

Under existing regulations, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India can impose up to Rs 50,000 penalty on telecom operators for failing to meet any quality of service parameter for mobile services and up to Rs 1 lakh for repeating such failures.

For example, if call drop rate benchmark of (less than) two per cent is not met by an operator, a financial disincentive up to Rs 50,000 can be imposed.

In case, the benchmark for the same parameter i.e. call drop rate benchmark is not met in any of the subsequent quarters, financial disincentive up to Rs 1,00,000 can be imposed by the authority.

Ravi said that earlier telecom operators were not meeting quality of services norms in 170 circles (number of circles counted on individual operator basis). The number of circles where operators did not meet the parameters has now come down to 104.

On pesky calls, Ravi said the number of complaints have come down from about 50,000 per month to about 11,000.

"Financial disincentive of Rs 2.15 crore was imposed on telemarketers in last 4 months. About 9 lakh telecom resources were disconnected in this year," he said.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/3936-trai-imposed-rs-5-cr-fine-in-2013-for-poor-service,-pesky-calls.html