The Hindu Business Line : Baijal moots telecom ombudsman

Mr Pradeep Baijal, Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, waiting for participants at an Open Forum in Hyderabad on Wednesday. — P.V. Sivakumar

Hyderabad , Sept. 21

THE Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Mr Pradeep Baijal, on Wednesday favoured an Ombudsman for the rapidly growing telecom sector, which could possibly witness 20 per cent mobile penetration within a few years.

Mr Baijal, who was here for an Open Forum, questioned, "When we have an ombudsmen for the banking and insurance sectors, why can't we have one for the telecom sector?"

However, both the telecom operators and the Government are not in favour of this institution of ombudsman for telecom sector.

"I believe India needs an independent arbitrator in the form of an ombudsman for telecom. This is particularly so, given the cumbersome process for grievance redressal from a consumer perspective. Even though we have consumer courts to handle these grievances, the process is long drawn. This would help given the dynamic nature of the industry.

"It took 50 years to achieve two per cent telecom penetration, and, thereafter, just one year to record another two per cent, followed by two per cent last year, and this year this is likely to grow by about three per cent. And soon go on to log 20 per cent penetration in the country. This means, we need a mechanism that will be able to address issues without having to take the matter to courts," he explained.

On the issue of number portability, Mr Baijal refused to comment when this would be a reality, since this offers people the flexibility to choose an operator, while retaining its existing number. "We have circulated a consultative paper on portability issue. Based on the response and how this can be implemented, we will take this issue forward.

"It all depends on how the operators view this issue. This could possibly also mean more investments to facilitate portability from an operator's point of view. Either this could be implemented in a phased manner or at one go depending upon how the operators take to this. Or it could simply by activating call forwarding mode," he explained.

Earlier, the TRAI Open House here dealt with two issues. One relating to `Billing Issues' and the other, `Mobile Number Portability.'

The TRAI member, Dr. D.P.S. Seth, said that consumers are often faced with the issue of resolving their grievances and are struck at first level without access to second level with an operator. Many of them express their concerns about this, but are not able to extricate themselves due to difficulties in doing so. They have also expressed the issue of wanting to move away from an operator, but are concerned about their contact number. "This is where mobile number portability will help."

TRAI discussions centred around how to evolve a Billing Code and standardisation. As a part of these discussions, TRAI proposed that they would come out with consolidated directions periodically from a consumer perspective.

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