Telcos told to submit quality of service data quarterly from January-March period

The telecom regulator has asked all mobile and landline operators to submit quality of service (QoS) data - state-wise and union territory-wise - on a quarterly basis from the ongoing January-March quarter to enable optimal tracking and analysis of their services, amid rising call drops.

The latest directive from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is aimed at arresting the deterioration in QoS, particularly call drops. At present, QoS parameters are checked on the basis of licensed service areas (LSAs).

"...the authority has observed that submission of state and union territory-wise data for QoS parameters is an essential requirement for optimum analysis of quality of service provided in various states and UTs," Trai said in its direction to operators Friday. Submission of QoS data in the suggested format, it said, would also allow the state/UT governments to help telcos in improving QoS.

Separately, Trai on Friday issued a draft regulation, reviewing the telecom QoS code around metering and billing accuracy, along with the draft guidelines. It has invited stakeholder comments on the draft regulations before coming out with the final rules.

According to the regulator, accuracy of metering and billing of telecom services has been its prime focus to protect consumer interests. But it now wants service providers to deploy more advanced, robust and scalable IT products for accurate billing of various services, especially since telco networks have undergone major changes and new IP-based networks and carrying voice-over data have shifted the billing process from a per second/minute-based model to data volume billing.

In the draft guidelines, Trai has suggested that all telcos get their metering and billing systems and respective LSAs audited for access services by an auditor once every financial year.