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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday launched ‘DND (do not disturb) services’ mobile application for managing unsolicited commercial communications (UCC).
The regulation already exists and consumers can still complain UCC messages and calls through 1909 (toll-free number), but this app would make it easier for consumers to report unwanted communications, TRAI said.
“The regulations have been framed keeping in view the interest of the customers and telemarketers while ensuring effective implementation,” A Robert J Ravi, Advisor, TRAI, told reporters here.
Can check the status With this app, consumers can also check the status of their complaints, he said, adding that the app is available on the Google App store and Mobile Seva app store, and TRAI is also working on for iOS users too.
Meanwhile, TRAI also released its drive tests for Delhi-NCR, where it found most of the telecom operators have failed to meet call drop benchmark.
“All telecom operator are performing below call drop rate and it has further degraded compared to previous tests,” Robert said.
TRAI has a website where it will publish results of the test drives. The recent test drives were conducted in Delhi-National Capital Region between May 3 and May 6, and the drive test route covered around 600km.
TRAI said it found Aircel using a higher limit for radio link time-out technology compared with other operators. It said that most of the operators, except MTNL 3G, meet the benchmark for all set-up success rate.
In case of call drop rate, most of the operators, except Reliance 2G and Vodafone 3G, are not meeting the threshold of the benchmark, the regulator added. On asked about imposing penalties for poor service quality, TRAI said it will write to the Department of Telecom for amendment in the TRAI Act to give it power to impose penalties on telecom operators.
“As the Supreme Court in its judgment has observed, TRAI does not have power to impose such (call drop) penalties on telecom operators. We will write to DoT today for amendment in TRAI Act to give us more power,” Sudhir Gupta, Secretary, TRAI, said.
Gupta said TRAI would also come out with a consultation paper on whether telecom service providers should provide internet telephony services such as WhatsApp and Skype. “Through such consultation, we will see what findings we get and decide how such calls are defined,” he added.
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