Consumer Blog » TRAI

No Cheap STD calls for Subscribers

myvoice — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:56:20 +0000

Department of Telecommunications ( DOT) has returned the TRAI recommendation about IP Telephony and which will result in further delay of lowering STD call rate to phone subscribers! It was to be 10 paise per minute once IP telephony was allowed as per TRAI recommendation.

Here is the report:

NEW DELHI: The wait for cheaper STD calls at 10 p has just got longer. The Department of Telecom sent the recommendations on IP Telephony back to Trai for review, ironically, on the last day of service of Trai Chairman, last week.

The delay by the government has further prolonged the hope of cheap STD calls at 10 paise per minute via internet for consumers, which if passed, can get anounced only post elections. .. Source

Telcos may be penalised for poor service quality

myvoice — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:37:48 +0000

Now this is what I call news! For long, consumers has been payign service tax and premium charges to telecom companies! But there was never any talk on quality fo service! I remember one incident when my friend complaint to Reliance Customer care about calld ropping at his residence and working fine at other places, customer care people used to laugh at him! Also explaining him to live with it as it is a problem of poor signal!

I hope, with this new regulation from TRAI, Mobile Operators will no longer be able to laugh off call dropping, poor signal charges! They have to maintain 98% signal everywhere now!

Also, any refund has to be made within a week! That reminds me, when I got diconnected my numbers from Vodafone, I was told repeatedly that I would get my refund in 45 days to 60 days from the date of disconnection! Now it will be within 7 days!

Here is the news :

NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator TRAI on Friday specified regulations for mobile and landline services to monitor the quality of service (QoS)
offered by telecom operators. The telecom sector already has QoS regulations in place, but those were specified in 2005. Trai, or the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, has now tightened these benchmarks. It has brought the pre-paid segment under the gamut of the new regulations. Source : Economic Times

Sory, TRAI press release does not open! Quality of Service! So I posted link to Economic Times News !

Here is screen capture!

Reliance CDMA in Rajasthan

myvoice — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:09:36 +0000

Have anyone known that from your Reliance CDMA mobile phone in Rajasthan, one can not send SMS to IDEA counterpart ?

Yes, it is true! You can not send SMS from Relaince CDMA in Rajasthan to IDEA in Karnataka! One of my friends today sent me an email informing about this! I was shocked tto know that! Also he informed me that it is in Relaince CDMA subscriber agreement itself that subscriber may not be able to send SMS to other operators where Reliance CDMA does not technical tie-up!

I am not sure what kind of technical tie-up required or what a massive investment required from Telcos in exchanging SMS, but inability by Reliance CDMA in providing SMS facility to all other Mobile Operators in India even after so many years of operation is not acceptable!

I wish some one will point out rules, regulations or TRAI guidelines about this.

MNP : Mobile Number Portability

myvoice — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:58:37 +0000

What is Mobile Number Portability ?

Mobile Number portability is changing your mobile operator but having the same number! Sounds great ? Indian Telecom is coming of age. This seems to be a great Telecom News India!

What do subscribers gain from Mobile Number Portability ?

The benefit of Mobile Number Portability looks immense to mobile subscribers India! That is what I feel. It will now keep Mobile Operators on tow to keep its subscribers happy, else subscriber will switch operators! Subscriber stands to lose nothing as his number remains the same. With switching operators changing the number was main reason why people don’t change Mobile Operators, else many people whoever facing some problem would have shifted to another Mobile Operator in a flash!

It will be interesting to see what will be the price and how it will be implemented. Hope this improves the custmer satisfaction from their operators! Indian Mobile Subscriber will be really benefited in terms of service provided by Telecom Service Providers.

Good News for Mobile Subscribers

myvoice — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:00:03 +0000

According TRAI ( Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) Local and STD Tarriffs may come down again. Here is the news:

Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday reduced the termination charge for all types of domestic calls, a move that has the potential of further reducing local call rates and STD tariffs. This can reduce tariffs for calls made from any type of phone , fixed or mobile, to any other phone within India.

With the exception of some special packages, the average local call tariff is in the range of 80 to 90 paise/minute with an average STD tariff of Rs 1.25/minute. Now these average rates could come down by 10 paise/minute as TRAI has reduced the existing termination charge of 30 paise/minute to 20 paise … Source

NDNC National Do Not Call Registry

myvoice — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 07:54:16 +0000

As soon you get a mobile connection or landline connection, you start getting calls! Not only from your friends, relatives, but also from various call centers offering you many schemes, discounts on products, insurance many things!

You feel like quite welcome and feel important! But when these calls start coming to you on hourly basis, daily non stop and number of real callers become minority due to onslought of these calls, what do you do ? Call up custmer care and request to save you from these calls ? Yes, you can do that, better still, you can simply register yourself NDNC – National Do No Call Registry!

Easy to register! For customers who would like to register/de-register their request for NDNC registry may dial 1909 or SMS to 1909 with keywords ‘START DND’ for registration and ‘STOP DND’ for de-registratio.

Also they have guidelines for Mobile Service Providers as below:

1. The service providers shall publicize and put on its website, the details of the location(s) where application for registration for Telemarketer will be accepted.
2. The service providers shall ensure that link to the NDNC registry portal is available from its website also and is prominently displayed. Source

Now have a look at websites of Mobile Service Providers! All of them have NDNC link on their footer except BSNL, and in BSNL too, it is not on non-scrolling area!

Unlimited Internet Download and Fair Usage Policy

myvoice — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:00:23 +0000

When truck overloads specified “Load Capacity”, traffic police ‘fines’ them. What about ISP(Internet Service Providers) and Telecom providers ? What happen to them when they take in more subscribers than their infrastructure capacities ?

“All lines in this route are busy, please try after some time!”, how many times you have heard that line ? Quite frustrating specially when you try to make calls from hospital, try to give your news of success in job interview, exams to your near and dear ones in far flung areas ?

This happen when ISPs, Telecom Companies provide enough links to that particular area. Are there any authority like traffic police to oversee traffic overload ? Or limiting number of channels ?

They ( ISPs and Telcom Companies), come out with schemes ‘Unlimited Download’, in their marketing promotions and we being Indians, we go fo those schemes and sign up for their services in bulk! But then we keep complaining we are not getting the bandwidth promised by ISP/Telcom Providers. These complaints had almost forced TRAI ( Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) to come out with plans to introduce norms hat would specify the ratio between the number of customers per unit bandwidth, which is known as contention ratio.

As per international practices, the average contention ratio for a home user package is 50:1 and that for business package is 20:1. TRAI has said that most ISPs compromise on quality by accommodating a higher number of subscribers thereby bringing down broadband speeds and congesting networks. .. Source

ISPs/Telecom Companies providing internet connectivity are opposing it and they have come out with a policy “Fair Usage Policy”. Now what is this Fair Usage Policy ?

They are

Airtel

Under the policy we have defined fair usage levels for unlimited data transfer plans and needless to mention, the usage levels set are very generous such that most customers will not be affected by the Fair Usage Policy.
On reaching the fair usage level, the plan speed would be rationalized by up to 50% for the rest of the monthly billing cycle. You would also be redirected to a page which will inform you that the speeds for the rest of the billing cycle month would be as per the Airtel’s Fair Usage Policy. – Airtel Source

Tata Indicom

Data transfer in excess of Fair Usage Limit as per the applicable tariff plan shall be treated as a violation of TCISL FUP.
Upon such violation of FUP, TCISL shall contact the Customer suggesting for reduction in usage or upgrade to a higher bandwidth plan.
Despite the above, if the customer fails to upgrade to a high speed plan or continue to violate the TCISL FUP, TCISL reserves the right to suspend or terminate the customer’s account immediately without prejudice to other rights available to TCISL under these Terms and Conditions. -Tata Indicom Source

Why should customer suffer for the inadequate infrastructure by ISPs/Telecom Companies ? How is is logical to ask consumers to be “Fair” while they had committed unfair means “Marketing Glitz like Unlimited Download” to get subscribers signup ?

For more one might like to visit this link.