Day 30 – Q 5.What is the mandate of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)? Discuss. How far has it been successful in protecting consumer interests? Examine.

5. What is the mandate of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)? Discuss. How far has it been successful in protecting consumer interests? Examine.  

भारतीय दूरसंचार नियामक प्राधिकरण (TRAI) का शासनादेश क्या है? चर्चा करें। उपभोक्ता हितों की रक्षा करने में यह कितना सफल रहा है? जांच करें।

Introduction:

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is a statutory body set up by the Government of India under section 3 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997. It is the regulator of the telecommunications sector in India.

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Mandate of TRAI:

• to create and nurture conditions for growth of telecommunications in India to enable the country to have a leading role in the emerging global information society.
• to provide a fair and transparent environment that promotes a level playing field and facilitates fair competition in the market.
• issue orders and directions on various subjects such as tariffs, interconnections, quality of service, Direct To Home (DTH) services and mobile number portability.
• to regulate telecommunication services, adjudicate disputes, dispose appeals and protect the interest of the service providers as well as consumers.
• To establish standards for Quality of Services (QoS) and supervise how service providers share revenue
• To conduct periodical surveys to ensure that telecom service providers are acting in the best interest of consumers and are opening in compliance with universal service obligations.
• Recommend government or the license providers on Efficient management of available spectrum, the introduction of new service provider, Revocation of license for non-compliance, Technological improvements in the services and so on.

TRAI being successful in protecting consumer interests:

TRAI has got the telecom award for balancing the economics of telecom regulators with the interests of consumers. It has taken various measures over the years like

• It has issued the Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund Regulations, 2007 to enable the service providers to transfer unrefunded money of customers lying with them to Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund (TCEPF). The income received from the fund is utilised to undertake programs to educate consumers, to conduct studies in the field of telecommunications and holding seminars, workshops etc on the subject of consumer welfare and for educating consumers. 
• TRAI has also issued the “Registration of Consumer Organizations Regulations on 21st February 2013, for strengthening the framework for interaction with the consumer organizations.
• Recently, TRAI has introduced 3 mobile Apps and web portal for Voice, Data quality and Tracking.
  • MyCall App: for crowd sourced voice call quality monitoring. It will help users to rate their experience about voice call quality in real time and help TRAI gather customer experience.
  • MySpeed App: enabling it to obtain test-driven data from users in all service areas, without any action by the users.
  • DND 2.0 App (Do Not Disturb) Services App: helping smart phone users to register their mobile number under DND to avoid unsolicited commercial communication/ telemarketing calls/ SMS.

• TRAI recently issued guidelines vis-à-vis DTH subscribers ‘Best fit plan’ could help in bringing down TV bills of consumers.
• TRAI gave recommendations and issued guideline on net neutrality backing a free and open internet ending the discriminatory treatment of content that cherry picked certain consumer base.
• TRAI mandated the mobile operators to compensate the consumers in the event of dropped calls.
• TRAI came up with the option to port the number between networks which has helped the consumers immensely.
• TRAI has conducted hackathons, conferences and seminars to manage the complaints of the telecom subscribers across the country and to improve overall consumer experience.
• TRAI has established a Telecom Consumer Complaints Monitoring System and appellate tribunal to hear the complaints ensuring consumer interests.

However, some of the decisions and the present scenario of the telecom industry has been proven contrary to consumer interests:

• The regulations on DTH subscribers, though has been able to reduce TV bills in big cities has contrarily increased the burden in tier 2- tier 3 cities and villages.
• Perhaps the biggest failure is vis-à-vis the 2G spectrum scam where TRAI was helpless and sidelined which harmed the consumer interests.
• TRAI intervention on tariff wars by capping the number of operators was against free competition and affected the interests of consumers.
• Recently TRAI rules mandating the telecom networks to charge for outgoing calls to different network has added additional burden on consumers.
• TRAI has failed to address larger issues of telecom industry which is struggling for a credible measurement for radio and digital mediums. This in turn has reduced the profitability of the sector which will reduce competition and hurts consumer in the long run.
• The recent ruling of Supreme court for paying dues by the telecom operators has affected investor confidence and eventual losses in telecom industry. This might result in mergers, quitting of players and would result in monopoly situation or increasing tariffs hurting the consumer interests. TRAI has to intervene to address fundamental issues which it has failed.

Conclusion

TRAI’s mandate is to ensure fair competition and uphold consumer interest which goes hand in hand. Some of the decisions of TRAI being too consumer centric has indirectly affected their interests. The core issues of the industry including speedy spectrum allocations, steps to make India a global R&D hub etc., has to be taken up by TRAI and recommend measures to address the same.