New TRAI rules: Jio, Airtel, BSNL, others to compensate users for service disruptions – details inside

New Delhi: As per new rules announced by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday, telecom operators will now be required to compensate subscribers if service disruptions last more than 24 hours at the district level. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has increased the penalty for failure to meet quality standards under the new rules. The fine has been increased to Rs 1 lakh, from Rs 50,000.

The regulator has introduced a new system of graduated penalties under the revised ‘Access Quality of Service Standards (Wired and Wireless) and Broadband (Wired and Wireless) Regulations, 2024’. The fines will now range from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, depending on the severity of the violations of the rules.

The new standards replace three different regulations: Quality of Service (QoS) for basic and mobile mobile services, broadband services and wireless broadband services. In the event of a network failure in a given district, telecom operators will have to provide a discount on rent for postpaid customers and extend the validity of the connection for prepaid customers under the new rules.

“If any major network outage persists for more than 24 hours, the service provider will provide pro-rata rental refund, as per the offered tariff, for the actual number of days of service interruption to the postpaid subscribers registered in the affected district(s) in the next billing cycle,” Trai said.

The regulator will count network outages lasting more than 12 hours in a calendar day as one full day for the purpose of calculating rent discounts or extensions. “A rent discount for a postpaid customer or an extension for a prepaid customer, delay in repairing faults or due to a significant network outage lasting more than 24 hours, as applicable, shall be made within one week of the significant network outage being repaired,” the new standard states.

However, outages due to natural disasters will not be considered for renewal. Even landline service providers will have to compensate postpaid and prepaid customers if a fault in their network or service is fixed after three days. The new rule requires broadband providers to activate 98% of connections within 7 days of customers making a payment.

Mobile service providers will be required to provide geospatial coverage maps by service (2G, 3G, 4G, 5G) on their websites to help users. The new Trai rules will come into effect after six months. (With PTI inputs)