TRAI hot on heels of service plroviders

New Delhi, Mar 19 (UNI) Sector regulator TRAI is poised to prosecute erring telecom providers including Reliance Infocomm and Bharti tele-ventures Ltd who have not responded to show cause notices served to them for network congestion on March 6 and would decide the final course of action tomorrow at its board meeting here.

Besides issuing notices the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) can recommend to the DoT to take penal action against erring operators and even recommend revocation of their licences.

The Board meeting also assumes significance as its Chairman Pradip Baijal is retiring also on March 21.

''We have decided not to give an extension to the operators to file their replies. The Trai board will meet on Monday to decide on the future course of action,'' Mr Baijal had said.

The notices were also sent to Reliance Telecom, Tata Teleservices, BPL Mobile Cellular and Spice Communication.

Meanwhile, Cellular Operators Asociation of India (COAI), the apex body of private operators in a reply to TRAI had said the regulator was shifting the blame on service providers for poor call quality and it was only covering up its own failures.

''It is a matter of grave concern to us that having been unsuccessful in its attempts for timely augmentation of Points of Interconnection (PoIs), the TRAI is now seeking to shift the blame on cellular operators, The regulator had on March 6 issued showcause notices to Bharti Tele-Ventures, Tata Teleservices Ltd, Reliance Infocomm Ltd as well as Reliance Telecom, BPL Mobile, and Spice Communication for the quarter ending December 2005. But in cases of Idea Cellular, Hutchison Essar Mobile Service Ltd, Aircel Cellular Ltd, BSNL and MTNL, there is no deterioration in regard to congestion above 0.5 per cent during this period. In case of Dishnet Wireless Ltd, the company was set up recently and, hence, no comparison can be made.

On analyzing the Performance report of the operators for the quarter ending December, 2005, it was seen that though there has been some improvement in the performance of the CMSPs in meeting the Quality of Service benchmark, but as regards POI congestion, most of the operators showed deterioration in their performance.

Last month itself the regulator had warned of a crackdown on mobile operators who fail to maintain quality of services (QoS) within the prescribed benchmark.

''The regulator will not allow subscribers to suffer indefinitely. We will issue notices,'' Mr Baijal said hinting at penal measures following suit. The Quality of service report of TRAI, brought out in November 2005 said 404 points of interconnections (PoIs) were not meeting the benchmark of less than 0.5 per cent congestion.

In 2001 the level of congestion was found to be more than 10 per cent which is 20 times worse than the benchmark. Similarly, in 70 PoIs the level of congestion was found to be more than 40 per cent.

The report had noted that cities like Patna, Agra, Lucknow, Jaipur, Chennai and Meerut the level of congestion between the networks of the different operators continues to be very high.

According to Mr Baijal, the major problem faced by mobile subscribers is congestion, which is primarily due to lack of interconnection agreements between service providers. According to a ruling of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), the apex body for resolving telecom disputes, interconnection needs to be negotiated between the concerned parties. In the event of disputes, it can be brought to TDSAT.

The network congestion ranges from 6 per cent the Capital to 60 to 70 per cent in smaller cities.

UNI