TRAI FINES JIO, AIRTEL, IDEA, VODA FOR NOT MEETING SERVICE QUALITY

Keeping its vigil on service quality in the sector, Trai has imposed penalties on leading operators, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, for failing to meet various Quality of Service benchmarks in the December quarter, according to a source.

Around Rs 31 lakh fine has been imposed on Reliance Jio, the newest entrant in the telecom sector whose aggressive offerings have led to a bruising tariff war in the market.

The penalty on Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio for December quarter is on account of Trai-defined service quality parameters including

Point of Interconnect congestion, accessibility of call centres and customer care, and also those pertaining to termination or closure of service complied to within the stipulated seven days, according to the source.

The fine imposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) relates to multiple circles or service areas in which the company operates. An e-mail sent to Reliance Jio seeking their response on penalties remained unanswered.

Trai Chairman RS Sharma had recently confirmed that "financial disincentive" has been levied on operators for December quarter 2017, but had declined to divulge details.

Trai has been maintaining that it does not wish to name specific operators or penalties slapped on them. Accordingly, it has never published this information either on its website or through a statement.

The fines imposed on Idea Cellular adds up to about Rs 28-29 lakh for the December quarter.

The penalties are to do with benchmarks on call drops, metering and billing, both pre-paid and post-paid, accessibility of call centre or customer care and its timelines (measuring the response time to a customer for assistance), for various circles.

Bharti Airtel — currently the largest telecom operator in the country — has been fined to the tune of about Rs 23 lakh for the three months ended December, the source said.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

IDEA Cellular Limited