COAI, AUSPI to set up Telecom Sector Ombudsman

New Delhi, Mar 12 (UNI) Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) has announced the establishment of an office of Ombudsman for speedy grievance resolution of subscribers in telecom sector.

Under the proposed scheme, the Telecom Sector Ombudsman (TSO) could be contacted directly by the subscriber through written communications, email, phone or fax.

COAI Director General T V Ramachandran stated that the Ombudsman scheme would be run as a 100 per cent voluntary and self-regulatory industry initiative and he hoped that this scheme would meet a long standing need of telecom subscribers for a speedy, low cost redressal mechanism, in case they were not satisfied with the response received from the company in question.

Mr S C Khanna, Secretary General, AUSPI, informed that the first office for the TSO will be set up in the national capital and it will look into consumer grievances on an all-India basis.

He said in order to make the mechanism more expeditious and consumer friendly, it had been decided that no third parties would represent the case, and it would function as a private arbitrator and settlement authority and will not be a legal forum with advocates representing the parties.

He said the TSO would look into each subscriber's complaint and make his recommendations within a short time frame.

Further, in order to make the scheme more effective and to demonstrate the commitment of the industry to this system, it had been decided that the recommendations of the TSO would be binding on the service provider.

The complainant subscriber however, would have the option to approach another forum in the event that he was not satisfied with the findings of the TSO.

The industry has also requested Justice D P Wadhwa, a retired Supreme Court Judge and former Chairman of the National Consumer Commission and also former Chairman of the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal to head the Office of the TSO.

UNI