Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has issued new regulations to address the increasing complaints from the broadband subscribers about the slower speed of the broadband services.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released new guidelines for telecom operators and ISPs to ensure that they provide broadband services at the minimum required speed to subscribers.
According to TRAI, there were 5.45 Million broadband users in the country as of December 31, 2008 against 5.28 Million in November 2008. Meanwhile, the dial-up subscriber-base stood at 12.24 Million. To make sure that subscribers receive broadband at higher speed, TRAI has set a minimum ‘contention ratio number’ of subscribers who could use the same bandwidth. The contention ratio for the broadband for businesses is fixed at 1:30 while for home 1:50.
Previously, operators were not bound to such restrictions and they were providing broadband services at contention ratio ranging between 1:80 and 1:100, which means 80 to 100 subscribers would be using the same bandwidth.
In January 2009, TRAI initiated a consultation paper to make the existing regulations more effective on the broadband quality. Increasing number of complaints from subscribers regarding slower broadband speed provided by their ISPs made the regulator to take such an initiative. Majority of complaints asserted that the broadband speed being offered is lower compared to the subscribed speed.
TRAI further added that despite prevailing regulations, parameters relating to speed of bandwidth utilization and connection, it was a difficult task to monitor them. Thus, it became increasingly critical to enhance the awareness of subscribers about the Internet services.
The new regulations have raised the fear that there will be an increase in the broadband tariffs as operators will have to buy additional bandwidth to maintain the new standards. However, even at the existing contention ratio, subscribers will not be able to get more than 64 Kbps speed.
According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “Rising number of complaints from the consumers has led TRAI to issue guidelines aimed at providing better broadband services. These regulations are expected to improve the broadband quality in India. In the meantime, raising consumer awareness is also equally important.”
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