TRAI extends deadline for comments on mobile Internet QoS

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended the deadline for comments on proposed guidelines on the minimum quality benchmark for mobile Internet services, to August 17. The deadline was earlier set for July 25. Under the 'Standards of Quality of Service for Mobile Data Services Regulations, 2012' issued by TRAI recently, operators will have to activate mobile Internet services within three hours of receiving the request from the customer.

"In view of the importance of the issue, the Authority has decided to extend the last date for submission of written comments by stakeholders until August 10, 2012 and counter comments by August 17, 2012,"  TRAI said in a statement. As per the guidelines, TRAI will monitor the quality of mobile Internet service on nine parameters, including minimum download speed, successful data transmission download and upload attempts and latency. The regulator has specified the success rate that operators should have in delivering mobile Internet services using 2G, 3G or 4G technology.

TRAI had released draft regulations on the minimum quality benchmarks for mobile Internet service and had sought written comments on them from stakeholders. "It is necessary to benchmark and monitor the quality of service offered by the service providers of mobile data services with various options open to the implementing agencies so that the interests of consumers are protected," TRAI had said.

Deadline for comments on mobile Internet QoS extended

The draft states that it will be mandatory for an operator to activate mobile Internet services within three hours of request from a customer, with a 95 percent success rate; data download attempts should have a success rate of 90 percent and data upload attempts should have a success rate of 85 percent; the minimum download speed provided should be recorded by the service provider and reported to TRAI; and the average throughput for packet data should be 90 percent of the subscribed speed. Among other things, the draft mentioned that the connection drop rate should be less than or equal to two percent of the total time.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been working hard towards improving the workings of the telecom industry in the country, since a while now and the past few months have been just a witness to that.

Earlier, in a bid to improve the quality of 3G voice calls, TRAI had amended the existing Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Regulations, 2009 dated 20th March, 2009 and issued a fresh 'Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Amended) Regulations, 2012 Act'. TRAI had issued a set of guidelines specifying the exact requirements of the Quality of Services (QoS) of the 3G networks to bring it in line with the standards recommended in the Act.