Call drop issue: Parliamentary panel calls DoT, Trai and telcos for meeting to discuss call drops

Image Credit: Reuters

  05 Nov 2016 , 14:14

A Parliamentary panel has called telecom operators along with the Department of Telecom and sector regulator TRAI for a meeting on 10 November to discuss the raging call drop issue.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, has called members of industry body COAI and Reliance Jio separately.

Reliance Jio, also a member of Cellular Operators Association of India, has blamed the industry body for promulgating views of mainly incumbent telecom operators – Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

The subject of the meeting is ‘Issues related to quality of services and reported call drops’, according to a Lok Sabha notice. The panel will “hear the views of the representatives of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Reliance Jio, followed by meeting with representatives of DoT and The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).”

Call drops are rampant in the country with telecom operators of late making some effort to improve the situation by installing more telecom towers.
There has also been a tussle between Reliance Jio and incumbent telecom operators for not providing adequate interconnection facility to the Mukesh Ambani-led firm, leading to heavy call drops on its network.

Interconnection enables mobile users to make calls to customers of other networks and is, therefore, crucial for smooth functioning of mobile services.

TRAI has also recommended a penalty of Rs. 3,050 crores on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, holding them responsible for congestion on Reliance Jio network leading to call drops.

As per the quality of service rules, not more than five calls in 1,000 should fail due to network congestion. The recommendation followed complaints from Reliance Jio that over 75 percent of calls on its network are failing as incumbents were not giving sufficient points of interconnect that would help complete calls.

As per TRAI’s recommendation, the penalty for Airtel and Vodafone work out to about Rs. 1,050 crores each, while in case of Idea Cellular it comes to about Rs. 950 crores.

The regulator stopped short of recommending cancellation of their telecom licences by saying it may lead to “significant consumer inconvenience”.

PTI

Trai needs to move beyond 512kbps, and overcome FUP and QoS barriers

Representational Image : Reuters

By Nimish Sawant /  03 Nov 2016 , 17:15

Trai released a directive which mandates all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to ensure that customers get a minimum download speed of 512Kbps, even after the fair usage policy (FUP) limit is up. Mind you, this is not an update to the minimum broadband speed, which is still 512Kbps, according to a July 2013 order.

TRAI Direction 31102016 BBPA by Tech2 on Scribd

Yes. I too did a double take when I read ‘kilobits per second’ and ‘minimum download speed’ in the same line. In 2016. The directive to ensure ISPs and TSPs inform users via SMS or email, when their data limit reaches 50, 90 and 100 percent, is laudable. But having an unlimited plan with an unreliable 512kbps speed hardly serves any purpose. The talks of raising the minimum broadband speed to 2 Mbps has still not gone anywhere.

For a country with the second largest number of Internet users, internet speeds are still being measured in kilobits per second in 2016.

India is second largest internet consumer in APAC region, but has the lowest speeds. Figures indicate millions of users (Image: Statista)

FUP in India is a joke

Let’s get one thing out of the way. FUP limits in India are a joke. FUP, that dreaded policy which lets ISPs and TSPs either cut off or downgrade your internet speeds after you have crossed a certain data limit ceiling, is universally hated and more so in India.

This means, that my ‘Unlimited’ 2Mbps plan will switch to 512Kbps after I have exhausted 16GB data within a month. Despite Trai’s paper on transparency surrounding FUP limits, a lot of ISPs still continue to

Telecom regulator Trai asks telecom operators to inform users about internet speeds and data limits

Representational Image : Reuters

  02 Nov 2016 , 16:43

Telecom regulator Trai Wednesday directed operators to inform customers about the data usage limits of their broadband plans and the extent to which speed of connection will be reduced in case users breach the ‘fair usage’ or data quota cap. Currently, under the ‘fair usage policy’ if a consumer subscribes to an unlimited broadband plan with, say, over 2Mbps speed and his usage breaches a certain quota say 2GB before the billing cycle is over, the provider can reduce the data speed for the remaining period.

The move is aimed at improving transparency and helping customers keep a track of their consumption levels as companies will also have to notify users when their data usage hits 50, 90 and 100 per cent of the prescribed limit under their chosen plan.Trai also said that in

Trai also said that in case of fixed broadband services, operators will have to ensure that download speed for a user does not fall below 512 kbps (as stipulated under Telecom Department norms) under any Fair Usage Plan, even after the assigned data quota expires.

As per today’s directive, broadband operators will have to provide alerts to subscribers through SMS on their registered mobile number/email each time their data usage reaches 50, 90 and 100 per cent of the said limit under their plan. Telecom service providers should also maintain a portal/website, so that users can check their usage at any point of time, it said.

Trai directive said for fixed broadband service users, companies under ‘fair usage policy’ will have to specify data usage limit and the promised speeds, as well as speed of the connection after excess usage. Similarly, for mobile broadband service, operators will have to specify the technology used for providing the data services alongwith the usage quota, and the speeds offered after the such data limits are breached.

This information has to be provided on the telecom operators’ website as well as in advertisements, Trai said. Trai directive said that the move was aimed at ensuring transparency in delivery of internet and broadband services. “…(this will) protect interest of consumers of the telecom sector, and facilitate further growth of internet and broadband services in India,” it said.

PTI

DoT looking at second gen reforms such as simplifying licences and EMF portals

  01 Nov 2016 , 16:01

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is now looking to herald second generation reforms like simplifying licences and launching electromagnetic field (EMF) portals to help people test the level of radiation from towers.

“We are now looking at second generation reforms, which include simplifying licences, moving from the access spectrum space to backhaul spectrum space and EMF portal, to make it possible for the citizens to test the radiation level from towers,” Telecom Secretary J.S. Deepak said on Tuesday.

Addressing the inaugural session of “India Telecom 2016”, organised jointly by DoT and Ficci, Deepak said in the last six to eight months there have been huge reforms in the spectrum space, like sharing and trading of airwaves.

“We have adopted a transparent system of allocation of spectrum,” he said.

Deepak further said, “There is no longer an environment of spectrum scarcity. So much spectrum is now available with our telcos that it can improve the quality of services, including mobile broadband.”

Sharing of passive infrastructure vis-a-vis licences and lighter regulations with issuing of self certification are some of the other things,” he added.

Deepak observed that a third of the country’s population is still without voice connections and two-thirds of it unable to connect to internet because of issues of connectivity, digital literacy and absence of content in local languages.

IANS

Call drop issue: Many telcos have executed 100-day call drop plan, says COAI

  01 Nov 2016 , 12:09

Many telecom service providers have executed the 100-day plan to tackle the call drop menace and achieved positive results, Rajan S Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said on Monday.

“Many of the operators have executed the 100-day plan. There is substantial reduction in call drop problem now,” Mathews told IANS ahead of Communications Minister Manoj Sinha’s 1 November meeting with CEOs of telecom companies to take stock of the call drop issue.

“But problems still remain in some areas, like Lutyens’ Delhi, south Delhi and some other places,” he added.

Earlier, Telecom Secretary JS Deepak said the sectoral regulator — Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) — has informed that there has been a substantial improvement in the call drop situation.

“We had a meeting in June, they (telecom service providers) gave us a 100-day plan. There has been, we believe, from TRAI figures lot of improvement in call drops. There were 54 networks which were not performing up to the standard in December 2015, and now it is down to only 19,” Deepak added.

The telecom companies had given a 100-day roadmap to the government in June to improve the call drop situation.

“They assured us that the target for the 100-day programme, as committed to the (telecom) secretary, will be met. They indicated that from the beginning of 10 June (when the 100-day programme started), there will be addition of around 60,000 BTS (base transceiver station) in 100 days across the country, out of which 48,000 have been installed in the first 45 days,” Manoj Sinha said on 25 July.

The service providers have committed an investment of Rs 12,000 crore for installing 60,000 BTS to address the situation by arresting call drops.

IANS

Airtel to approach Trai to clear confusion over the proposed Rs 1,000 cr penalty

Image: Reuters

  27 Oct 2016 , 17:57

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel today said that it will approach government and telecom regulator Trai to clear the “confusion” that led to proposed penalty of over Rs 1,000 crore on it for not providing interconnection facility to Reliance JIO Infocomm.

“We are aware of proposed penalty. We believe there is confusion here. We will find way to go back to Trai and DoT. We are very confident that government will take a very objective position in the Herculean efforts we have put to resolve this issue,” Bharti Airtel MD and CEO for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal said during analyst call today.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended the Department of Telecom to slap total penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular for not resolving interconnection issue with Reliance Jio despite its direction that led to high call failure on latter’s network.

“It is part of our regulatory obligation that we provide connect. At the end of the day it is our job to fight in the market and serve customers better. So this is a non-issue,” Vittal said. He said that Jio announced on 31 August, that they would launch services on 5 September.

“There is lot of augmentation that we have done on points of interconnect. We have never seen that kind of augmentation that we have ever done in the past,” Vittal said. He said that the interconnection ports that Airtel has provided per million of customers is more that 2.5 times than of any other operator in India.

“The regulation allows you 90 days to all these augmentation. We have done it literally in 5 weeks,” Vittal said.

Talking about Airtel strategy to counter Reliance Jio’s free 4G mobile service, Vittal said that it is very difficult to offer free service in response but company will look at offering more bundled service like Jio is offering to counter threat from it.

“We believe that when something is free there is only way to compete is to go and give it for free. It is very difficult. In that sense we are watching that space. Free stuff also has impact on quality of network. We are keeping track on that,” Vittal said.

PTI

Disclaimer: Reliance Jio is owned by Reliance Industries, who also own Network18, the publisher of Firstpost and tech2.

TRAI fines Airtel, Vodafone, Idea for denial of interconnection to Jio

  22 Oct 2016 , 11:09

The Indian telecom regulator on Friday slapped heavy penalties on three telecom players — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular — for not providing sufficient points of interconnections (PoI) to Reliance Jio.

It also said the action of the three operators showed “ulterior motive to stifle competition”.

In three similar letters to the three players, the watchdog — Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) — said it has recommended a penal action of Rs 50 crore per licence service area (LSA) (except Jammu & Kashmir) where PoI congestion exceeded the allowable limit of 0.5 per cent as reported by Airtel/Vodafone/Idea Cellular through emails in September 23.

In the case of Airtel and Vodafone, the fines imposed were for 21 LSAs, amounting to Rs 1050 crore each while in the case of Idea, the fine was Rs 950 crore for