Lucknow Press
Telecom Regulatory TRAI has made a big announcement for customers on Friday. TRAI said that if services are disrupted for more than 24 hours at the district level, then telecom companies will have to compensate the customers. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has increased the penalty amount from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh for failing to meet every quality standard under the new rules.
The regulator has introduced a penalty system of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for different scales of rule violations under the revised rules ‘Access (Wireline and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Quality Standards Regulations, 2024’.
What are the new rules of TRAI?
The new norms replace three separate regulations – service quality for basic and cellular mobile services, broadband services, and broadband wireless services.
According to the new rules, in case of network disruption in a district, telecom operators will have to give discounts in rent for postpaid customers while extending the validity of connection for prepaid customers. TRAI said, ‘If any such network deadlock continues for more than 24 hours, the company will give discounts to the registered customers of that district in the next bill.’
The regulator will count network disruption periods of more than 12 hours in a calendar day as a full day for calculating discounts in rent or extension of validity. However, this relief will not be available in case telecom services are disrupted due to natural disasters.
