State-owned telecom firms lag in quality

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd are way behind private service providers in terms of quality of service (QoS) parameters for landlines, says a survey by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

According to the QoS survey for the quarter ending March 2005, BSNL and MTNL have failed to meet Trai's benchmark that fault incidences per month per 100 telephones should be less than 3 in all their circles.

Twelve circles of BSNL and MTNL in Mumbai have also failed to meet the benchmark of providing telephones within seven days of application in exchange areas.

On the other hand, all private operators have shown 100 per cent compliance of these two parameters, the study finds. Ten circles of BSNL and MTNL in both Mumbai and Delhi have failed to meet the Trai benchmark that over 90 per cent of faults be repaired within the next working day from the day of lodging of complaints.

Among the private operators, only Tata Teleservices (AP) has failed to meet this QoS, the survey says. On Trai's criterion that the mean repair time should be less than eight hours, 17 of the 26 circles of BSNL and MTNL in both Mumbai and Delhi failed to live up to expectations.

With regard to repeat faults, BSNL in almost all circles (except in Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir) and MTNL, in both Mumbai and Delhi, have failed to ensure that this be less than one per cent. The survey finds that the private operators were within the benchmark limits.

While Trai had stipulated that call completion in local network should be over 65 per cent, 16 of BSNL's 26 circles and MTNL in Mumbai and Delhi, have failed to achieve this benchmark. Among private operators, HFCL (Punjab), Shyam Telelink (Rajasthan), Tata (Gujarat), Bharti (Tamil Nadu) and Reliance (except in Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Orissa, UP East and West, and West Bengal) have achieved the desired benchmark, the survey says.

BSNL in Chennai, Northeast II and Jammu and Kashmir, MTNL in Mumbai and Delhi, and Tata (in all circles except Gujarat), Bharti in Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, HFCL in Punjab and Reliance in Himachal Pradesh, have also not been able to meet the criterion that not more than 0.1 per cent of bills should be disputed over a billing cycle.

However, BSNL, MTNL and all the private operators have failed to ensure that urgent calls booked with them be answered within one hour and ordinary calls within two hours, the survey adds.