Give clear road map on fixing 5G connectivity issues: Trai to telcos

Govt preparing the ground for tougher service quality norms

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked telecom service providers (TSPs) to give it a clear road map on addressing connectivity issues related to 5G.

Trai held a meeting with officials from all the three major TSPs – Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea – on Friday on the issue of poor connectivity and call drops. At the meeting, the TSPs were told that the government was preparing the ground for much tighter quality of service (QoS) norms, according to people in the know.

The latest meeting had been called to discuss ‘measures and action plan for improvement in QoS, review of QoS standards, QoS of 5G services and unsolicited commercial communications’.

Trai monitors performance of various services provided by TSPs by collecting a performance monitoring report (PMR) on a quarterly basis. Trai also conducts audits to assess the performance of TSPs in respect of the prescribed QoS benchmark. Officials said the meeting was called after initial reports showed widespread problems with call drops and poor audio connectivity from 5G users across circles.

However, the TSPs asked for more time to iron out connectivity issues, stating that 5G infrastructure was being established at a quick pace across the country.

Meanwhile, the Department of Telecommunications has also planned to launch an independent QoS test for 5G, officials had told Business Standard.

The ministry received many complaints about poor call connectivity from 5G users and the issue was communicated to the two TSPs currently rolling out 5G services, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, officials had said.

The first test may be akin to the periodic drive tests conducted by the Trai nationwide to assess the network quality provided by TSPs for voice and data services, the officials added. While telecom operators submit performance monitoring reports to Trai regularly, the regulator also undertakes audit and assessment of service quality through independent agencies.

Only 16 per cent of mobile subscribers who switched to 5G have indicated an improvement in call connection and drop issues, according to a survey by LocalCircles conducted in January.

Tougher norms soon

The Trai Act, 1997, gives the regulator exclusive powers to ensure QoS, conducting periodic reviews and protecting consumer interests. It had last launched a consultation paper reviewing network related QoS for cellular mobile telephone services back in 2016.

The new QoS norms will effectively aim to eliminate call drops, poor voice and data connectivity. “At a time when massive strides are being made in bringing 5G technology to India, and TSPs are ramping up their infrastructure, it is unacceptable that a large number of complaints over quality issues continue to come in, even from major urban areas,” a senior official said.

However, despite attempts to rectify the issue, the government was unable to act on it based on the existing parameters, he pointed out. This was because the TSPs continued to mostly meet the benchmark for most QoS parameters, because of averaging the performance for the entire service area, even as a large number of consumers complain because of poor quality of experience.

The existing parameters include network availability, accessibility of connection establishment, ease of connection maintenance, and point of interconnection congestion, with a series of sub-parameters. TRAI has set minimum benchmarks for these, over a one month period in a fixed service area.

Trai had earlier pointed out that this performance, averaged for the entire service area, may give a different picture about QoS than what a customer sees, with many areas or localities within the service area with significantly worse service. As a result, a major tightening of the rules through much more detailed parameters is set to be suggested by the DoT.