The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has introduced new quality of service regulations that require telecom operators to compensate subscribers for service outages exceeding 24 hours at the district level. The announcement, made on Friday, underscores TRAI's commitment to enhancing service quality and ensuring accountability among telecom providers.
Under the revised regulations, telecom operators must provide compensation in the form of rent rebates for postpaid customers and extended validity for prepaid customers if a network outage lasts for more than 24 hours. The compensation will be proportional to the actual duration of the outage, calculated on a daily basis.
"If any such significant network outage continues for more than 24 hours, the service provider shall provide a proportional rent rebate, as per subscribed tariff offering, for the actual number of days of service outage to postpaid subscribers registered in the affected district(s) in the next billing cycle," stated TRAI.
In addition to these compensation measures, TRAI has increased the penalty for failing to meet quality benchmarks from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The regulator has also introduced a graded penalty system with fines of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh, and Rs 10 lakh, depending on the scale of the violation. These penalties will apply under the new "Standards of Quality of Service of Access (Wirelines and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Regulations, 2024."
These new norms supersede the previous regulations for basic and cellular mobile services, broadband services, and broadband wireless services, consolidating them into a unified framework aimed at improving service standards across the board.
TRAI's initiative reflects its ongoing efforts to ensure that telecom operators provide reliable and high-quality services to their subscribers while holding them accountable for any lapses in service delivery.
