MobilePhone.co.in

In order to improve the services of telecom and to make the tariff plans easier to understand the telecom regulator, TRAI will now audit the Quality of telecom services quarterly instead of annually.

A senior TRAI official stated that “From July this year, we shall be doing quarterly audit. Till now, every three months the service providers submit data on defined parameters of Quality of Service but audit was done annually by TRAI.”

This step by TRAI will put the pressure on service providers so as to constantly upgrade their networks and swiftly render the complaints of subscribers.

TRAI is also planning to simplify the tariff plan literatures which are offered by the operators because the subscribers do not get the correct information regarding the hidden costs and the benefits of different plans.

Moreover a web based “Telecom Consumer Grievances Monitoring Systems” will also be launched by 15^th of July this year which will enable the customers to lodge their complaints and monitor their redressal on the web through internet.

It has been recently stated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that the base of wireless subscriber has increased from 601.12 million in April to 617.53 million at the end of the May which shows a growth rate of 2.71%. The wireless teledensity at the end of May was 52.30%.

Among all the telecom operators, Bharti Airtel got the maximum net additions with 3 million new subscribers and the company was followed by Reliance Communications at 2.8 million, Vodafone at 2.6 million, Tata Teleservices at 2.4 million, Aircel at 1.6 million and Idea with 1.4 million new subscribers. The stated owned BSNL and MTNL had 1 million and 39,000 new subscribers respectively.

Of all the circles, A, B, C and metros, the maximum number of wireless subscribers were achieved by Circle B which was 6.3 million. Following circle B was Circle A which added 5.3 million subscribers then Circle C with 2.5 million and finally the metros which added 2.2 million subscribers.

The telecom regulator’s most recent recommendations on allocation of 2G spectrum, if accepted by the Department of Telecom (DoT), could badly affect  the GSM ambitions of several key mobile operators, specially the service providers like Tata Teleservices, Norway’s Telenor and Essar-owned Loop Telecom.

According to the market report Tata Tele, which runs GSM services under the DoCoMo banner, has been waiting for allocation of startup GSM airwaves in various region (including Delhi) for almost two years. The same with Telenor, which operates GSM services under Uninor brand.

Under Trai’s proposed spectrum allocation system, Tata Tele, Telenor and Loop may have to exist without startup GSM airwaves in a host of locations for longer duration since TRAI believes ample spectrum should be first available to existing operators with networks and subscribers to help them carry out their operations more effectively.

If their requirements are met completely the 2G airwaves will be allotted to companies who are yet to receive the startup spectrum in chosen areas.

The mobile companies have greeted the new rules by telecom regulatory authority with their anger. According to them the proposed rules that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) wants to implement on this industry will make the situation even worse.
Many cellphone operators notified that any action to implement this recommendation without discussion would force them to proceed legal challenges and ET has learnt that some of them have started making out a case for a ministerial panel to rework all key policies for the telecom sector. Reliance Communications was the only operator who is welcoming the planned changes.

TRAI chairman JS Sarma said that their plan is to charge a one-time fee for holding 2G radio spectrum in excess of 6.2 MHz. Which means the mobile phone companies will have to pay Rs 30,000-35,000 crore more to the government. The fee will be linked to the price of 3G spectrum that is now being auctioned. The worst affected companies will be Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Essar.