Concentrating on quality of service for consumers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has issued a new set of rules for access and boradband service providers in the industry.
On Friday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released new regulations titled ‘The Standards of Quality of Service of Access (Wirelines and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Regulations, 2024 (06 of 2024)’. These regulations apply to access (fixed and mobile) and broadband services and will be effective from October 1, 2024.
The revised regulations were finalised after a detailed consultation process, including a consultation paper issued on August 18, 2023, and an open house discussion on April 9, 2024, where stakeholders and consumer groups provided feedback.
To address quality issues from the widespread adoption of new technologies like 4G, 5G, and high-speed fibre broadband, the Authority has reviewed existing regulations and introduced a comprehensive framework. This new framework consolidates quality of service (QoS) benchmarks for all services, aiming to ensure high-quality consumer service.
As per the revision, service providers will now be required to display technology-specific mobile coverage maps on their websites, allowing consumers to make more informed choices. Additionally, they must publish QoS performance data against specified parameters on their sites to ensure greater transparency.
To keep pace with new applications and global standards, the regulations updated latency benchmarks and introduced new parameters for jitter and packet drop rates. Mobile QoS performance will be monitored monthly instead of quarterly, with a six-month transition period to adjust reporting schedules.
Furthermore, performance data will be collected at a granular level, including cell-specific metrics for network availability and call drop rates. The regulations also impose stricter QoS rules for network availability and call drop rates progressively tightening over six months to two and a half years.
Changes have been made to the measurement methodology, such as using percentiles instead of averages for specific parameters to identify performance issues and facilitate targeted corrective actions more effectively.
TRAI’s additional requirements include reporting significant network outages and new performance metrics, like jitter and SMS delivery success rates. Some QoS factors have been rationalised or shifted from compliance to monitoring.
Service providers are now mandated to upgrade their systems for real-time monitoring and reporting and are encouraged to implement ‘Six Sigma Quality Management’ plans. Graded financial disincentives for non-compliance have been introduced to ensure timely resolution of QoS issues.
TRAI previously issued three separate QoS regulations: ‘The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Regulations, 2009’, ‘Quality of Service of Broadband Service Regulations, 2006,’ and ‘The Standards of Quality of Service for Wireless Data Services Regulations, 2012’.
It was officially confirmed that the new set of regulations will supersede these three.
