Trai seeks details from telcos on congestion levels

Taking a stern view of the ongoing connectivity dispute between existing operators and Reliance Jio, regulator Trai today warned of action in case of service quality violation as it asked all service providers to submit information on congestion levels in their networks.

Acting on a complaint from Reliance Jio on alleged refusal of incumbent operators to allow mobile number portability (MNP), Trai has asked the operators for a clarification on the issue.

"Today, we have decided to seek information from all telecom service providers (TSPs) as to what is the level of congestion on their PoIs," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman R S Sharma told reporters here on the sidelines of an event organised by the Tower And Infrastructure Providers Association (Taipa).
 

He added that Trai has asked them to furnish the said data from September 15-19, detailing how many calls were attempted and how many of them failed on a daily basis.

"That will determine level of congestion at PoIs," he said.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has accused incumbent players -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular -- of providing less than the required number of PoIs needed to complete calls, leading to 75-80 per cent of calls failing between Reliance Jio and other networks.

The existing operators had argued that the new entrant has unleashed a tsunami of "asymmetric" traffic on their networks.

According to the current regulations, not more than five calls out of 1,000 can fail at PoIs.

"Therefore, we would like TSPs to ensure PoIs don't drop calls and that quality of service norms on PoIs is maintained," he said.

Sharma said Trai will give operators "a couple of days" to furnish the data on PoI congestion for the five-day period and then it will "determine what action can be taken".

He, however, declined to comment specifically on the action being mulled by the regulator.

"There is a regulation of Trai on what should be the quality norms on congestion at the network port and if that regulation is violated, then we will have to take action against the party concerned," he said.