MANU/TRAI/0060/2015

Department/Board : Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Press Release No. : 49/2015

Date : 07.09.2015

TRAI Releases Report of the "Independent agencies engaged for Assessment of (i) Implementation and effectiveness of various regulations, directions and orders issued by TRAI in the interest of consumers and (ii) Customer Perception of Service through Survey.

TRAI has conducted Customer satisfaction survey through independent agencies for the assessment of Quality of Service being provided by the telecom service providers and collected customers views through survey for the assessment of (i) Implementation and Effectiveness of various regulations, directions and orders issued by TRAI in the interest of consumers and (ii) Customer perception of telecom service through surveys during the period from October, 2014 to March, 2015. The survey was carried out in the service areas of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh (East &West) in North Zone, West Bengal, North East, Bihar & Jharkhand in East Zone, Mumbai and Rest of Maharashtra in West Zone, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in South Zone in respect of Basic Telephone Service (Wire line), Cellular Mobile Telephone Service and Broadband Service.

2. Survey on Quality of Service Parameters:

As per the methodology of the survey, survey questionnaire has been framed to assess customer perception on service relating to the following seven quality of service parameters specified in the regulations

• Provision of services

• Billing performance

• Help services including customer grievance redressal

• Network performance, reliability and availability

• Maintainability

• Supplementary and value added services

• Overall service quality

The satisfaction of the customers were assessed on a scale of 1 to 7, where a score of 4 to 7 denotes levels of customer satisfaction and score below 4 is considered as customer dissatisfaction. The survey reveals that the satisfaction level varies from service area to service area and from service provider to service provider.

3. Survey on the customer centric provisions of various Regulations:

For assessing effectiveness of the regulations relating to awareness about grievances redressal mechanism, implementation of mobile number portability and UCC regulation, following parameters were surveyed.

• Registration for blocking unsolicited commercial calls/SMSs (Basic/Cellular)

• Satisfaction on effectiveness of blocking of unsolicited commercial calls/SMSs (Basic/Cellular)

• Satisfaction on ease of lodging the complaint:

• Satisfaction on action taken on the complaint lodged

• Awareness about the grievance redressal mechanisms

• Consumers' complaints to toll free consumer care number

• Satisfaction with manner in which the complaint was handled in consumer care

• Consumers' appeal to Appellate Authority and Satisfaction with manner in which the appeal was addressed

• Utilization of Mobile Number Portability service: (Cellular)

• Satisfaction with information provided under Fair Usage policy (in case of broadband)

• Satisfaction with the facility to measure the broadband connection speed(In case of Broadband)

The results of the survey reveal that the telecom service providers need to take effective steps for making their consumers aware of the various grievances redressal mechanism available to them including awareness of the Appellate Authority, to improve customer's satisfaction.

4. The detailed Report on Quality of Service -Customer Satisfaction Survey, including complaint redressal mechanism, conducted during the period October, 2014 to March, 2015 is placed at TRAI Website.

5. In case of any clarification, please contact, Mr A. Robert. J. Ravi, Advisor (QOS) at Tel. No. 011-23230404/23664610 or at email id: advqos@trai.gov.in.

Sudhir Gupta
Secretary, TRAI