The Hindu Business Line : TRAI asks Bharti to stop charging users for repairs

New Delhi, Aug. 22 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Tuesday asked Bharti Airtel to stop taking money from subscribers for rectifying faults and undertaking repairs.

Criticising the operator for proposing to charge extra for rectifying defects, TRAI asked Bharti to refund the money, if any, taken from consumers till now.

TRAI said that such a move was anti-consumer because the responsibility for maintaining the network and rectifying faults should not be that of the consumer but of the operator.

“As per the terms and conditions of the licence issued to the service providers, the responsibility for maintaining the performance and quality of service standards rests with the service providers and they must ensure an uninterrupted service with the quality standard prescribed by TRAI. The customer does not choose the quality of material being used in the network by the company and is not responsible for the bad workmanship in the cable, drop-wire, DP etc. and the customer has no say in determining the quality of the network elements,” TRAI said in a press release.

While Bharti has been asked to comply with the orders within a week, TRAI will issue separate guidelines to other operators as well.

In a separate decision, TRAI has amended the guidelines for registration of consumer organisations to attract more representation from the States.