According to the TRAI, broadband connections have crossed 17 lakh by August 2006 and the number of complaints against ISPs have also increased. After much deliberation, TRAI has laid down the following Quality of Service parameters:
- Activation of service within 15 working days, else the customer shall be given Rs.10/day subject to a maximum of instalation charge/usage allowance in the first bill
– Fault Repair/Restoration by next working day in 90% cases, 99% within 3 working days. Else, a rebate of shall be given to the customer.
There are specifications for bandwidth utilization and throughput, as well as service availability, packet loss and network latency. Most interestingly, customer satisfaction parameters have been specified, and I think most ISPs in India are going to fail this.
Why? Because for most of the ISPs (not including Reliance, Airtel, BSNL, MTNL and Tata Indicom, who’re setting up their own wired distribution networks), the only mode of distribution is via the local cable operators, who fall short on most counts. The customer satisfaction parameters are qualitative, so I’m not sure of how reliable they will be, or even if consumers in general will be aware of these measures. Personally, I had a torrid time when I had a Sify connection via a cable operator, and was even told that the cable operator was using bad service to renegotiate his deal with Sify. The current guidelines should actually help customers hold ISPs accountable for deficient servicies in the Consumer Court, ’cause there was a case earlier in which the Consumer Court passed the buck to TRAI, and TRAI back to the Consumer Court.
You may download the recommendations here(pdf, 104kb)
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