TRAI releases the draft “The Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Digital Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2016"- (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) (10 Oct 2016)

MANU/TRAI/0107/2016

Media and Communication

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today released "the draft Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Digital Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2016". TRAI has earlier issued Quality of Service (QoS) regulations for different television delivery platforms in broadcasting sector from time to time with a view to ensure better quality of TV broadcasting services to the consumers. These regulations were issued when the digital revolution in the broadcasting sector and use of ICT technologies for managing QoS complaint redressal were at the nascent stage. In today's digital broadcasting scenario where substantial digitalization has been achieved, the basic QoS provisions and performance parameters are largely similar across the television distribution platforms. Subscription of services, complaint redressal and even the consumption of services have become platform agnostic. In digital environment, consumer awareness about the service offerings, ease in subscription, service management and redressal of consumer complaints by the service providers in a time bound manner are vital areas of concern to ensure good quality of service to consumers. Optimum utilization of ICT technologies will go a long way in ensuring better quality of television broadcasting services.

With a view to harmonize existing QoS provisions and also to formulate unified regulations for all digital addressable systems viz. Cable TV, DTH, HITS and IPTV, a consultation paper on "Issues related to Quality of Services in Digital Addressable Systems and Consumer Protection" was issued on 18th May 2016, inviting comments from the stakeholders.

Tags : REGULATIONS DRAFT RELEASE