The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has released draft regulations stipulating basic minimum quality benchmarks for mobile data services. The move is aimed at ensuring that mobile companies offer a minimum quality of services to consumers. Similar norms already exist for voice services.

Under the regulations, TRAI would conduct periodical survey of such service provided to protect interest of the consumers of telecommunication services. This would also make the processes transparent to consumers for services provided by telecom players or the service providers.

For example, TRAI has suggested that operators have to offer a minimum throughput of 90 percent of the subscribed speed on an average. This means a user who has subscribed to a 100 Kbps data plan should get at least 90 kbps speed on an average over a period of time. Currently, there is no quality of service standards for the mobile data services. “It is necessary to benchmark and monitor the quality of service offered by the service providers of mobile data services with various options open to the implementing agencies so that the interests of consumers are protected,” TRAI said in a statement.

Under the regulations, operators would have to activate mobile Net service within three hours of receiving request from customer. The regulator will monitor on nine parameters, including minimum download speed. –Communications Today Bureau