The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has imposed cumulative penalty worth Rs 5 billion on nine operators for the alleged violation of quality of services (QoS) benchmarks.
The regulator has imposed a maximum penalty of Rs 1.45 billion on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited for failing to meet as many as 13 QoS parameters. Aircel and Reliance Communications (including Reliance Telecom) have been fined Rs 1.25 million each. TRAI has imposed penalty of Rs 0.3 million on Idea Cellular, Rs 0.2 million each on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India and Rs 0.15 million on Uninor. Besides, CDMA service provider Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited has been asked to pay a fine of Rs 50,000.
Under existing regulations, TRAI can impose penalty up to Rs 50,000 on operators for failing to meet a QoS parameter and up to Rs 100,000 for defaulting on the same count for the second time. The regulator, however, can impose a penalty of up to Rs 1 million in case an operator has submitted a false compliance report on QoS benchmark.
