DoT asks Trai to make quality norms stricter

New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked sector regulator Trai to make quality of service norms stricter in order to curb call drops and improve call quality, an official source said. The move comes after DoT collected feedback from the public through an IVRS (interactive voice response system) call around call drop, quality of calls etc.

"Quality of service is very important for customer satisfaction and protection of their interests. DoT has requested Trai for improvement in the present quality of service (QoS) through more stringent parameters," the source said. The source said DoT also observed few key performance indicators while broadly studying global best practices on QoS. "Same has been shared with Trai today (Tuesday)," the source added.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has called a meeting with telcos on February 17 to discuss measures and action plan for improving service quality, review of norms, benchmarks for 5G services, and unsolicited commercial communications. The move is aimed at improving the telecom service quality and check call drops. It also comes at a time when ultra high speed 5G services are being rolled out across the country. So far, 5G services have been launched in over 300 cities in India. The next generation of technology promises turbocharged speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and low latency connectivity. Issues around service quality have been in the spotlight over the last few months.