Call Drops Complaints Are Increasing, So TRAI Starts Reviewing Service Quality Rules

The telecom regulator Trai said on Friday that it has been receiving many call drop complaints from users, necessitating a revision of the current quality of service regulations in order to gauge network performance at the district level and include 4G and 5G services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) stated that despite improvements in performance management tools and mobile telecommunications technology, consumer quality of experience (QoE) has not increased as anticipated, even though such quality of service (QoS) requirements are supported by technological standards.

There have been a rising number of complaints about call dropouts, call muting, insufficient data speed, etc., which raises concerns about the network architecture and provisioning of necessary network resources, according to Trai. This is true even though 4G networks are widely available across the nation and 5G services are being introduced.

Under the quality of service regulations, the regulator has suggested tightening call drop standards, call success rate, etc.

“The issues related to the quality of telecom services are not only reflected in consumer complaints but also find substantial mention in Parliament Questions,” stated Trai.

In the 2G and 3G eras, when data services were provided through circuit-switched networks, and their QoS performance standards were established based on the capacity of underlying technology, the regulator claimed that the Standards of Quality of Service for Wireless Data Services were announced.

Over 75% of the nation’s telecom network is now made up of packet core networks using LTE (4G), LTE-Advanced, and 5G technologies. According to the statement, the current QoS standard calls for cellular data services to have latency of fewer than 250 milliseconds (ms) and wireline broadband services to have latency of less than 120 ms, which are out of step with the demands of modern applications.

The current laws are technology neutral when it comes to QoS standards and requirements for voice and data services. To track the QoS performance of 5G, the necessary language for such services has also been revised, according to Trai.

Currently, the size of a telecom circle—which is roughly equivalent to the size of a state—is used to gauge service quality.

According to Trai, different districts perform differently when compared to various QoS criteria, such as network availability and drop call rates.

Even extremely poor performance against QoS criteria in a few districts could not be shown in performance reports due to averaging across LSA. As a result, performance against QoS criteria may need to be assessed in such circumstances, even at the district level, the regulator added.

Trai said that despite the fact that service providers have introduced mobile applications and online interfaces for clients, clients still have difficulties filing complaints as a result of convoluted procedures.

It said that despite the introduction of mobile applications, the volume of calls sent to call centers has not decreased, and many service providers still struggle to fulfill industry standards.

“Additionally, a significant portion of feature phones on the mobile network are unable to register complaints via mobile applications. The Authority does not support lowering this criterion for the sub-parameters of contact center accessibility and the proportion of calls that are answered by operators (voice to voice),” Trai said.

The regulator has set a deadline for comments on draft regulations of September 20 and a deadline for countercomments of October 5.