Date:01/12/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/12/01/stories/2005120102880900.htm

Back TRAI asks cell operators to meet quality norms by Dec 31

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Nov. 30

THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday asked all cellular operators to comply with the prescribed quality of service norms by December 31.

The move comes after the telecom regulator found that the service providers were not meeting the quality benchmarks despite being brought to the notice of the service providers.

The TRAI discovered that in about 193 locations, the congestion level is more than 10 per cent and in about 72 places, the level of congestion is 40 per cent or more. The authority has specified a benchmark of less than 0.5 per cent.

The telecom regulator has been constantly monitoring the level of congestion at the point of interconnection (POI) between the service providers on a monthly basis so as to ensure effective interconnection between the networks of service providers.

"The POI congestion report for the period July - September also shows that there has been an increasing congestion between the networks of cellular mobile operators.

The TRAI has, therefore, issued on November 29, directions to all cellular mobile service providers to ensure, by December 31 that the quality of service parameters, including the level of POI congestion, in networks should be strictly within the benchmark laid down by the authority, a press release said.

The performance monitoring report of cellular mobile service providers for the quarter ended September 30 shows that all the service providers are not meeting some of the QoS benchmarks in some of the circles.