Telcos seek easing of 'stringent quality of service' norms

In place since October last year, the QoS norms call for data for network availability, call drop, voice packet drop rate in uplink and downlink, among other parameters, to be collected at the cell level.

The norms currently include network availability, accessibility of connection establishment, ease of connection maintenance, and point of interconnection congestion, with a series of sub-parameters.

Trai has set minimum benchmarks for these over a one-month period in a fixed telecom circle.

Arguing that Trai did not sufficiently address their concerns over how burdensome and cost-intensive the measures will be, operators said they have approached the DoT.

"Such stringent measures do not exist in any telecom market globally. In a country as populous as India, a vast number of towers are needed to provide services.

"The number of sites continues to be expanded. It's difficult to collect the data from every source with such frequency," an official with a private sector telco said.

But the DoT believes Trai has already spoken on the issue.

"The issue has been brought up by the operators in certain discussions about QoS.

"There are many factors associated with the process of ensuring good telecom services.

"Trai has already taken a detailed look at this," a DoT official said.

Meanwhile, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents private sector telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, has told the government that telcos face persistent challenges like Right of Way (RoW) issues, spectrum interference, and infrastructure constraints, hindering timely network rollouts.

The Telecommunications Act 2023 introduced critical RoW amendments for uniform state laws, but timely implementation is crucial, especially for 5G expansion, it has said.

Not budging

Trai officials indicated that the regulator was unwilling to change the norms.

Even as a large number of consumers complain because of poor quality of experience, the performance averages out for the entire telecom circle, officials pointed out.

"But this often gives a different picture about QoS than what a customer experiences, with many areas or localities within the service area with significantly worse service.

"The updated norms are also in the interest of transparency," a Trai official said.

He, however, pointed out the operators continue to mostly meet the benchmark for most QoS parameters.

Operators earlier submitted QoS data as per Licence Service Area (LSA), commonly called telecom circles.

India has 22 telecom circles, many of which do not correspond with individual state boundaries.

Case in point, Uttar Pradesh has two circles (East and West), while Maharashtra and Goa are a single circle. Telcos had earlier also pushed back when Trai had asked data collection to be pegged at the district and state levels.