Teeth for TRAI’s broadband quality rules?


Posted on October 29, 2012  /  1 Comments

LIRNEasia contributed to a set of broadband quality rules that TRAI formulated in 2009. They dealt with contention ratios being maintained at certain levels and being periodically published. There is no mention of those rules in the report in the Hindu Businessline, which focuses on response times to complaints.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India proposes to collect a penalty of Rs 50,000 from operators if they violate any of the set quality norms for broadband services. The penalty will increase to Rs 1 lakh for the second violation.

TRAI had laid down the quality of service standards for broadband in 2006 but there was no provision to impose a penalty. But the regulator has been conducting periodic survey through independent agencies across the country to monitor the compliance of prescribed benchmarks.

It seems like a good idea to consolidate the rules pertaining to broadband quality to start with. INR 50k is a small amount in the Indian context. Isn’t name and shame a more effective solution?

1 Comment


  1. There’s also a INR 10 lakh penalty for false reports. How data integrity will be maintained is not publicly known. http://gadgets.ndtv.com/telecom/news/trai-recommends-rs-10-lakh-penalty-for-isps-falsifying-reports-285036