Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has made two major announcements in the last few days, which can have major impact on the way telecom services are being used currently:
Pan-India Mobile Number Portability from May 3rd
TRAI has issued fresh draft regulations pertaining to Nationwide Mobile Number Portability, according to which May 3rd is the day when any telecom user can switch their carriers while retaining their same number.
Currently, users in a particular telecom circle can only use mobile portability service, which often translates to a state. Hence, a mobile number from Gujarat can only switch telecom companies within Gujarat. After May 3rd, the same user can go to any state in India, and switch his telecom company, without changing his number.
The present draft is TRAI’s 6th amendment, a process which started way back in 2009. During the last amendment in November, it had proposed several changes, and guidelines which have formed the base of the present draft. One of the most crucial discussion points was regarding post-paid customers, who were earlier liable to get disconnected even if they had paid their full dues of their last service provider. This has been covered under the present draft.
Additionally, a deadline for number portability has been fixed, along with standards and protocols. General public is requested to provide their valuable comments and feedback on the present draft by February 6th, 2015.
The comments can be sent by Email [email protected] and [email protected].
Android App for Customer Feedback
TRAI has launched a new Android app, which can be used by mobile subscribers to provide their feedback for their telecom service provider. TRAI does take feedback via traditional means such as face to face interview, telephonic questionnaire and web based survey; but this is for the first time that they have launched an application for the same.
Consumers can anonymously register and provide their honest feedback to TRAI, which will help them in standardizing the services and monitoring the quality of service of various telecom companies. As per existing regulations by TRAI, a fine upto Rs 50,000 can be imposed on telecom companies which fail to provide the services they have promised, which can be extended upto Rs 1,00,000 in case of repeated failures.
The app has not yet been uploaded to Google Playstore, but you can download it here (Here is direct APK link), and then manually install on your Android phone.
Also the app and the online survey have no provision for quality of service for DATA or internet connection via HSPA plus or 3G/4G. In today’s time this is a glaring omission. However I used the opensignal app and kept logs for around 2 weeks at different times of the day/night to note the quality of service parameters and mailed them to the customer service deptt of Vodafone, my service provider in Chandigarh. Vodafone has no 3G network in the Chandigarh/Punjab circle and was using Idea’s 3g network which had awful quality of service issues–generally the upload speeds were almost zero most of the time while download speeds and latency times were 60% working. I couldnot browse youtube, gmail etc most of the time and could never send text emails also and had to use the wifi connection. Vodafone also did not extend the time limit (28 day prepaid plan) when bad data network connectivity issues were brought to its notice by email and phone calls. Its better to not use the DATA services than to try to get service from the mobile Telecom licensees who are favored by the license raj.
The app crashes when it comes to the question of filling one’s age range and cannot proceed further. TRAI being a govt deptt, the secretary never responded to email sent about the bug. Better to fill the survey form online at http://www.trai.gov.in/Content/Survey.aspx
[…] an official announcement, TRAI has said that Pan-India MNP will be implemented by May 3rd and they have also launched an Android app for taking customer […]