India Regulator issues QoS guidelines; adopts some LIRNEasia-TeNet recommendations

Posted on March 5, 2009 / 2 Comments

Contention Ratios varying from 1:50 and 1:20 (Can be relaxed a bit in residential as the links are not shared) is what LIRNEasia and TeNet jointly proposed, but Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) thought it best to adopt 1:50 and 1:30. According to ‘Guidelines for service providers providing Internet/broadband services for ensuring better quality of service’TRAI issued on March 2, 2009, ISPs are expected not only to maintain contention ratios above these values but also be open to subscribers on what they will deliver – instead of promises they cannot make.

In addition we received some publicity from Indian online media. Good to know people start taking notes.

More on LIRNEasia’s Rapid Response program here.

Read all comments TRAI received from stakeholders on Consultation Paper on “Bandwidth Required for ISPs for better Connectivity and Improved Quality of Service” here.

2 Comments

Mahinda Herath
March 5, 2009, 6:23 pm
I have two comments.

1.Your link to ‘Guidelines for service providers providing Internet/broadband services for ensuring better quality of service’ is not working! This link leads to “ERROR ! ERROR ! ERROR ! Sorry ! Please try another link.”

2.I always wonder why you never take into account the “Implied Contention Ratio” in analyzing the customer experience. “Implied Contention Ratio” is an important parameter in reporting broadband quality. (If you need more information on this, I suggest that you refer OECD reports for definition. I am sure that you will be surprised to find out how important this parameter is and how OECD countries are scoring on this parameter!). After all, what is the use of going at rocket speed for just 2 minutes of the whole month and then pay through your nose for the rest of the month, even for very a moderate speeds? What one has to understand is that the monthly subscription paid by a customer is to receive reasonable service for the whole month and therefore the cost per bit over a month is also a very important QoS factor; as far as a customer is concerned.
Chanuka Wattegama
March 5, 2009, 9:09 pm
Hi Mahinda and all,

Sorry about the link. It worked when I visited but looks down for some reason now.

I have uploaded the document instead.