TRAI fines nine telecom operators Rs. 50 lakhs for poor service in Q2: Report

Telecom regulator TRAI has imposed cumulative penalty of Rs. 50 lakhs on nine mobile operators for failing to meet quality of service benchmarks in the second quarter ended June 2013, official sources said.

The regulator has imposed maximum penalty of Rs. 14.5 lakhs on state-run telecom company BSNL for failing to meet 13 quality of service parameters, they said, adding that no penalty was imposed on Videocon, Loop Mobile and state-run MTNL.

TRAI imposed Rs. 12.5 lakh penalty on Aircel and Reliance Communications (including Reliance Telecom) for failing to meet certain parameters.

The regulator imposed a penalty of Rs. 3 lakhs on Idea Cellular, Rs. 2 lakhs each Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, Rs. 1.5 lakhs each on Uninor and Vodafone, sources said.

A fine of Rs. 50,000 was imposed on CDMA operator MTS.

( Also see: TRAI fines 13 telecom operators for non-compliance of pesky call )

Under existing regulations, TRAI can impose up to Rs. 50,000 penalty on telecom operators for failing to meet any quality of service parameter for mobile services and up to Rs 1 lakh for repeating such failure.

For example, if call drop rate benchmark of (less than) two per cent is not met by an operator in the first quarter after coming into force of these regulations, a financial disincentive not exceeding Rs. 50,000 would be imposed.

In case, in any of the subsequent quarters the benchmark for the same parameter i.e. call drop rate benchmark is not met, financial disincentive not exceeding Rs. 1,00,000 will be imposed by the authority.

The regulator, however, can impose a penalty of up to Rs. 10 lakhs if it finds that telecom operators have submitted false compliance report on quality of service benchmark.