Under TRAI’s new rules, telecom companies will have to pay compensation if the network is unavailable on mobiles, thereby putting customers at risk. At the district level, telecom companies are required to compensate customers for service disruptions of 24 hours or more. Additionally, TRAI has increased the penalty for not meeting each quality standard in the recently introduced rules from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. These new rules will come into effect in six months.
The new Quality of Service rules issued by TRAI on Friday stipulate that, at the district level, telecom companies will have to compensate customers in case of service disruption for 24 hours or more. The regulator has increased the penalty for not meeting each quality standard from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh under the new rules.
Rule Penalty System:
The regulator has introduced tiered fines of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh, and Rs 10 lakh for various categories of violations under the ‘Access Services (Wireless and Wireline) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireline) Services Amendment Rules, 2024’. These new regulations will replace three existing regulations, namely basic and cellular mobile quality of service (QoS), broadband services, and broadband wireless services.
New Rule Features:
According to the new rules, telecom operators will have to waive monthly fees for postpaid customers and extend the validity for prepaid customers in case of network disruption in a district. The regulator will count a period of network disruption of more than 12 hours in a calendar day as one full day for calculating the monthly fee waiver or validity extension. However, it will not be counted in case of problems caused by natural disasters.
Fixed-line service providers must also compensate postpaid and prepaid customers if their network or service faults are corrected after three days. TRAI’s new rules will come into effect in six months.
These changes aim to enhance the quality of telecom services and ensure that customers receive fair compensation for any disruptions. With stricter penalties and clearer guidelines, TRAI hopes to hold telecom companies accountable and improve the overall customer experience.
