TRAI Releases Draft Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Repealing Regulations

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released draft Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Repealing Regulations, 2023; for inviting comments of stakeholders.

The TRAI notified regulation on quality of service of dial-up and leased line internet access service, 2001 (4 of 2001) on 10th December 2001. This regulation is applicable to all the Basic Service Operators and Internet Service Providers, including the incumbent operators viz. BSNL, MTNL and VSNL. The purpose of laying down Quality of Service Parameters was to ensure customer satisfaction by laying down norms of network performance, which the service provider is required to achieve by proper dimensioning of his network; measure the Quality of Service from time to time and to compare that with the specified norms so as to monitor the level of performance, provided by various service providers and to protect the interests of subscribers of the Internet services.

It has been noticed that these regulations were issued when the dial up service was the only service available for accessing low speed internet. With the passage of time, the telecommunication networks both wireline as well as wireless have evolved to offer high speed broadband service on xDSL, FTTH, LTE, etc, technologies. Whereas the leased line access services are generally offered by Internet Gateway Service Providers (IGSPs) holding an ISP licence to enterprises, is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) based service. Being SLA based service, the agreement among the contracting parties has sufficient provisions to safeguard concerns regarding service quality. Hence, the regulation on quality of service of dial-up and leased line internet access service, 2001, appears to be no more relevant in the present context.

In view of the above, Authority intends to repeal the Regulation on quality of service of dial-up and leased line internet access service, 2001 (4 of 2001) with effect from date of its notification in Official Gazette.

The draft Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Repealing Regulations, 2022 regulation is available on TRAI website www.trai.gov.in and shall be open for comments of the stakeholders up to 17th April 2023.