An overwhelming 69 per cent consumers favour entry of private players in basic telephony services as competitors to department of telecommunications (DoT), according to a nation-wide consumer survey.
69 per cent of the respondents supported the entry of private operators citing poor service and problems related to DoT personnel, while only 8 per cent opposed the entry and the rest failed to answer.
The survey was conducted by Consumer Coordination Council in collaboration with German non-governmental organisation Friedrich-Neumann-Stiftung.
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The citizens charter survey was done as part of a programme to focus on problems faced by consumers of services provided by the government, and is a pilot study on five service sectors telecommunication, banks, health, municipal service and electricity, Santosh Kumar of the Council said.
The study also covered the consumers response to other problems associated with the telecom sector.
Around 375 households in eastern, northern and southern telecom regions, including 25 households of Noida using services provided by a private telecom operator, were surveyed. The responses were collected and analysed by Voluntary Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education (Voice), New Delhi, Kumar said.
On the number of calls required to register a complaint with the telephone department, 64 per cent said a complaint was registered after two to five calls while 29 per cent said they could register a complaint only after six to 10 calls.
In contrast, 85 per cent of the respondents using telephone service provided by a private operator in Noida said they were able to register their complaint on the first call itself. 48 per cent of the respondents said their phones were repaired by DoT within two to five days of the complaint, 35 per cent said it took six to 10 days, 8 per cent said it took 10-30 days and six per cent felt it took more than a month.
55 per cent of the respondents using private telephone service said their phones were repaired a day after their complaint, while 45 per cent said it took two to five days.
The billing-related services and operator services of private sector in contrast to MTNL is very good and also the grievance redressal and general attitude of staff is better.
None of those using private phone service ever had problems of inflated bills or had to pay to the staff to carry out repairs in contrast to 51 per cent who said that they had to pay telecom staff every time there was a fault.