TRAI has issued guidelines to ensure that ISPs and telecom operators provide adequate broadband speed to their customers.

TRAI has issued guidelines to ensure that ISPs and telecom operators provide adequate broadband speed to their customers. The regulator has fixed a minimum “contention ratio” of users who can share the same bandwidth, to ensure that customers get better and higher broadband speeds. Earlier, there was no such restriction on operators, as a result of which they offered internet and broadband services at a contention ratio of 1:80 to 1:100 (which implies that the same bandwidth would be used by 80-100 customers). Under the new guidelines, the contention ratio for broadband at home has been fixed at 1:50 and for businesses at 1:30. Most of the ISPs believe that the move will increase broadband tariffs as the companies will have to buy more bandwidth to comply with the new norms.