Trai considers penalty on operators not meeting new QoS norms for Q3

"We will be imposing some penalty on those who have not met the stipulated standards," said a Trai official who did not wish to be named.

A final decision on the matter is yet to be taken, the source said but declined to diluge further details about the specific operators who will face the action and the amount of 'financial disincentive' that may be imposed.

"The more granular level of monitoring of call drop has resulted into significant action against the service providers for October to December quarter," the source added.

The Trai had earlier issued showcause notices to various operators for specific circles for not meeting revised quality of service criteria as laid down by the regulator.

The assessment has been benchmarked to the new and more stringent call drop norms that came into effect from October 1, 2017.

Meanwhile, Trai on Tuesday has issued a draft to amend interconnect regulations, proposing certain changes in terms and conditions for operators to seek fresh call connect ports from other telcos.

Trai has sought views and comments from the industry by May 18 on the draft. The 'draft Telecommunication Interconnection (Amendment) Regulations 2018' proposed that a service provider can ask another operator for additional ports, in case the projected utilisation of the capacity is likely to exceed 85 per cent over 60 day period.

"The time frame for provisioning of ports for initial interconnection and augmentation is proposed to be increased to maximum 42 working days," Trai said in a statement.

The regulator said that an operator will have to give a forecast of outgoing call traffic of busy hours for each interconnect point once every six months — April 1 and October 1 — to the interconnecting service provider. The first such forecast has to be given within two months from the commencement of these amended regulations.