Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday announced new direction to mobile service providers for delivering broadband services in a transparent manner by providing adequate information to broadband consumers.
The new telecom policy on Indian broaband segment by TRAI is important because India’s broadband users are complaining about broadband speed and shocking bills. India has nearly 159.80 million broadband users including 17.32 million wired broaband subscribers and 141.94 million mobile Internet users in June 2016, says TRAI.
Telecom operators, as per the new telecom policy, need to provide the following information in respect of all broadband tariff plans offered under Fair Usage Policy on their website and also in all advertisements published through any media:
Fixed broadband service
# data usage limit with specified speed
# speed of broadband connection up to specified data usage limit
# speed of broadband connection beyond data usage limit
Mobile broadband service
# data usage limit with specified Primary technology (3G / 4G) for providing data services
# speed offered for providing data services beyond data usage limit
TRAI says it will be mandatory for Indian telecoms need to provide information to both new and existing subscribers on their registered email address and through SMS on their mobile number registered with the service provider, as opted by consumer.
Telecoms need to ensure that download speed of broadband service to fixed broadband users is not reduced below minimum download speed for broadband as defined by Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in any Fair usage broadband tariff plan after expiry of assigned data quota of consumers.
TRAI earlier said the number of broadband subscribers increased from 159.80 million (+0.03 percent) including 17.32 million wired subscribers and 141.94 million mobile Internet users in June 2016.
What is missing in TRAI policy
The TRAI policy did not ask Indian telecom operators to reveal the details of area-wise broadband coverage. This will assist broadband users to select the right service provider for their broadband connectivity. The telecom regulator can also ask telecoms to reveal the number of base stations dedicated for broadband in specific areas and the users in the particular location.
TRAI also did not reveal the action plan if some telecoms do not meet the new policy. TRAI is usually silent about penalty on QoS issues even if some telecoms are not keen to meet QoS norms.
Indian broadband in numbers
Airtel with 40.61 million, Vodafone with 32.28 million, Idea Cellular with 27.02 million, BSNL with 20.56 million and Reliance Communications with 14.38 million users are the top five broadband service providers in India.
The leading Indian wired broadband service providers are BSNL with 9.88 million, Bharti Airtel with 1.82 million, MTNL with 1.10 million, Atria Convergence Technologies with 1.02 million and YOU Broadband with 0.56 million users.
As on 30th June, 2016, the top five wireless broadband service providers are Bharti Airtel with 38.79 million, Vodafone with 32.27 million, Idea Cellular with 27.02 million, Reliance Communications with 14.26 million and BSNL with 10.68 million users.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
