India's telecom regulator, the TRAI, has announced plans to enhance quality of service (QoS) requirements for 4G and 5G networks in an effort to reduce call drops and network downtime issues.
The new measures include higher financial penalties for service providers failing to meet standards and the obligation to compensate mobile users for outages lasting over 24 hours. Fixed line providers will also face penalties if they take more than three days to fix network faults. Financial penalties for not meeting benchmarks have been raised to INR 100,000 (around USD 1,190).
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The TRAI has introduced a graded penalty system for different levels of rule violations under the updated regulations. The changes come after a thorough review of existing rules and the implementation of a comprehensive regulatory framework that combines QoS benchmarks for 4G, 5G, and high-speed broadband services on fiber.
The updated regulations reflect the evolving technology landscape by tightening benchmarks for network availability, call drop rate, packet drop rate, and latency.
Operators have been given a transition period of six months to two and a half years to upgrade their networks smoothly.
Under the new approach, service providers must publish mobile coverage maps for 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, as well as QoS performance on their websites. They are also required to report significant network outages, jitter, maximum bandwidth utilization, and SMS delivery success rate on a monthly basis at a cell level.
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Previously, reporting was conducted quarterly at a base station level. These rules will be enforced starting from October 1.
Service providers argue that complying with the new QoS rules will increase their costs and burdens. They also point out challenges such as right of way (RoW) issues, radio interference, illegal boosters, repeaters, and equipment theft that could affect QoS. Reports suggest they plan to discuss these concerns with India’s Minister of Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia.
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