The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has completed consultations with telecom operators and is expected to notify regulations governing the quality of 5G services in the next two months.
The upcoming regulations to check the quality of 5G services are expected to have stringent benchmarks for call issues and jitters in video streaming and video calls, among key parameters. As per TRAI, the issues are arising because of packet drops and the same needs to be strengthened.
Additionally, TRAI will incorporate jitters into its parameters for the first time, enabling the monitoring of data flow fluctuations. TRAI noted that his parameter is important for time-critical applications such as video calls and high-quality video streaming. TRAI will also update the existing quality norms for 4G services.
According to the draft regulations, TRAI aims to implement an average latency of under 100 milliseconds for both 4G and 5G networks over a one-month period. Additionally, it said jitters should be under 50 milliseconds and the call drop rate should be below 2 per cent, with a more detailed approach. Currently, the latency benchmark stands at under 250 milliseconds.
In the draft, TRAI has modified the compliance mechanism for telcos, shifting from a quarterly reporting basis to a monthly one. The reason behind the same is that the quarterly reporting results do not give a clear picture of degraded quality of services in certain areas. The same gets compensated with better quality of service performance in other areas.
Further, TRAI is also expected to ask telcos to report significant network outage to the authority within 24 hours of the start, as part of the new norms.
The draft further stated that in case the telecom operators do not meet the benchmarks, which are coming up for 4G and 5G, there is likely to be a provision of levying a penalty of up to Rs. 3 lakh per benchmark. In case of false reporting, the penalty on telcos is expected to be up to Rs. 10 lakh per benchmark. However, telcos have also opposed the stringent penalty norms.
Furthermore, telecom operators are not in line with TRAI’s stance on the new parameters for 5G. Telcos have additionally stated that service quality issues arise from inadequate hardware performance. They have further appealed to TRAI not to transition from quarterly to monthly data reporting.
