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The regulator has said that any charges incurred on account of rectification, defects, repair and on visiting the subscriber must be borne by the service provider. TRAI has also directed Bharti Airtel to refund such charges collected from its subscribers within one week and submit a compliance report on it.
TRAI, after studying the tariff reports submitted by Bharti Airtel has slammed a proposal by the telco to levy additional charges for rectification of defects, "The authority held that such tariff packages are anti-consumer and cannot be permitted. There is no justification for any such charges where the up-keep of the services is an integral part of the service itself. Such unjustified charges are detrimental to telecom consumers," Trai said.
At the same time, TRAI also said that it would issue detailed guidelines on this issue to protect the interests of all telecom users in the country. TRAI has pointed out that as per the licence conditions, it was the responsibility of the operator to maintain the performance and quality of service standards on an un-interrupted basis as per the parameters specified by it.
When contacted, Bharti Airtel in a statement said, "We are fully committed to providing our customers with uninterrupted network availability and service delivery. However, at times there are requests that are unrelated to network and not part of the standard service bouquet. We are happy to provide such services on an optional basis and at a nominal cost. These charges are been duly notified to the regulator. We have taken note of the regulator's decision and communicated on the compliance."
The regulator has also told service providers that since the customer does not choose the quality of material being used in the network by the company, he can in no way be held responsible for the bad workmanship in the cable or drop-wire as he has no say in determining the quality of the network elements.
"The interruptions and rectifying such interruptions are matters relating to service and quality and customers cannot be charged to rectify such interruptions," TRAI added.
In a non-related development, TRAI on Tuesday eased the registration norms for consumer organisations and NGOs to interact with the authority on telecom-related issues. At present, only organisations registered with TRAI can take up consumer cases and, a minimum experience of three years in areas of representing views of consumers is mandatory to register with TRAI.
The regulator has now slashed this to one year as it found that more than eleven states in the country have no representation in the registered group of consumer organisations.
"During the course of the open house discussions and interactions with the registered organisations, it was revealed that one of the reasons for not having adequate representations from the states was on account of certain eligibility conditions. The authority having undertaken an in-house review of the regulation, decided to amend some of the criteria for registration of consumer organisations," TRAI said in a statement.
TRAI, after studying the tariff reports submitted by Bharti Airtel has slammed a proposal by the telco to levy additional charges for rectification of defects, "The authority held that such tariff packages are anti-consumer and cannot be permitted. There is no justification for any such charges where the up-keep of the services is an integral part of the service itself. Such unjustified charges are detrimental to telecom consumers," Trai said.
At the same time, TRAI also said that it would issue detailed guidelines on this issue to protect the interests of all telecom users in the country. TRAI has pointed out that as per the licence conditions, it was the responsibility of the operator to maintain the performance and quality of service standards on an un-interrupted basis as per the parameters specified by it.
When contacted, Bharti Airtel in a statement said, "We are fully committed to providing our customers with uninterrupted network availability and service delivery. However, at times there are requests that are unrelated to network and not part of the standard service bouquet. We are happy to provide such services on an optional basis and at a nominal cost. These charges are been duly notified to the regulator. We have taken note of the regulator's decision and communicated on the compliance."
The regulator has also told service providers that since the customer does not choose the quality of material being used in the network by the company, he can in no way be held responsible for the bad workmanship in the cable or drop-wire as he has no say in determining the quality of the network elements.
"The interruptions and rectifying such interruptions are matters relating to service and quality and customers cannot be charged to rectify such interruptions," TRAI added.
In a non-related development, TRAI on Tuesday eased the registration norms for consumer organisations and NGOs to interact with the authority on telecom-related issues. At present, only organisations registered with TRAI can take up consumer cases and, a minimum experience of three years in areas of representing views of consumers is mandatory to register with TRAI.
The regulator has now slashed this to one year as it found that more than eleven states in the country have no representation in the registered group of consumer organisations.
"During the course of the open house discussions and interactions with the registered organisations, it was revealed that one of the reasons for not having adequate representations from the states was on account of certain eligibility conditions. The authority having undertaken an in-house review of the regulation, decided to amend some of the criteria for registration of consumer organisations," TRAI said in a statement.
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Source: ET
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