Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service · 8 of 2019

TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETTE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY, PART III, SECTION 4

TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 1st November, 2019

F. No. 301-02/2018-QoS(Misc.).—In exercise of the powers conferred upon it under section 36, read with sub-clauses (i) and (v) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 11, of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act 1997 (24 of 1997), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India hereby makes the following regulations further to amend the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Regulations, 2009 (7 of 2009), namely: -

THE STANDARDS OF QUALITY OF SERVICE OF BASIC TELEPHONE SERVICE (WIRELINE) AND CELLULAR MOBILE TELEPHONE SERVICE (SEVENTH AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 2019

(8 of 2019)

1. (1) These regulations may be called the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Seventh Amendment) Regulations, 2019 (8 of 2019);

(2) They shall come into force after fifteen days from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. After regulation 6 of the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Regulations, 2009 (7 of 2009), the following regulation shall be inserted, namely: -

“6A. Duration of alert for the called party: (1) The time duration of alert for an incoming voice call, which is neither answered nor rejected by the called party, shall be thirty seconds for Cellular Mobile Telephone Service and sixty seconds for Basic Telephone Service.

(2) The terminating network shall, on expiry of thirty seconds in case of Cellular Mobile Telephone Service and sixty seconds in case of Basic Telephone Service, release the incoming voice call and transmit the call release message to the originating network:

Provided that the originating network may release an unanswered call after ninety seconds in case the call release message is not received from the terminating network.”

(Sunil Kumar Gupta) Secretary

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Note.1. —The principal regulations were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III, Section 4 dated the 20th March, 2009 vide notification No. 305-25/2008-QoS dated the 20th March, 2009.

Note.2. —The principal regulations were amended by issuing the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Amendment) Regulations, 2012 (10 of 2012) dated the 7th May, 2012.

Note.3. —The principal regulations were further amended by issuing the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2012 (24 of 2012) dated the 8th November, 2012.

Note.4. —The principal regulations were further amended by issuing the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2014 (12 of 2014) dated the 21st August, 2014.

Note.5. —The principal regulations were further amended by issuing the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2015 (8 of 2015) dated the 15th October, 2015.

Note.6. —The principal regulations were further amended by issuing the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2017 (4 of 2017) dated the 18th August, 2017.

Note.7. — The principal regulations were further amended by issuing the Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Sixth Amendment) Regulations, 2018 (7 of 2018) dated the 31st July, 2018.

Note.8. —The Explanatory Memorandum explains the objects and reasons of the “Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Seventh Amendment) Regulations, 2019 (8 of 2019).

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Explanatory Memorandum

1. Background

1.1. A telecom subscriber is alerted by the network for a certain duration in which it expects the called party, if available and willing to respond to it, to either answer or reject it. Networks are configured to release the call from their end, if neither the calling party has abandoned the call nor the called party has responded to it. Network cannot wait for more than a reasonable time as it wastes resources that are reserved during the setup phase of the call. To reduce the impact on network resources for the calls which are likely to remain unanswered, it is necessary to limit the duration of alert. But if this duration is too low, some users may fail to respond to the alert even when willing to do so. Short duration may also result in increase in repetitive attempts to call or return a missed call though conversation could have happened in first attempt itself. Not giving sufficient time to respond to alert for an incoming call for significant number of cases will adversely impact the quality of experience of the customers. The present range of duration of call alert by different TSPs varies from 30 seconds to 45 seconds in case of the mobile networks, except one Access Provider who has set “alert duration” as 25 seconds and in case of basic telephone neworks, it varies from 60 seconds to 120 seconds.

1.2. Recently, it was brought to the notice of the Authority that one of the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) has reduced duration of alert to a lower value in comparison to values configured in rest of other networks and it is adversely affecting the customers’ experience. It was also brought to notice that effective control to release the call when it remains unanswered, usually rests with the terminating network but lowering value of timer at originating leg of the call has shifted this control to originating end and is causing earlier release of even those calls for which terminating network has set higher values. This was reported to have resulted in significant rise in number of calls not released on the basis of response of the called party to the alert but on the originating network’s initiation to release the call.

1.3. It was also noticed that range of value for timer is prescribed in International Telecommunication Union (ITU) specifications for international calls or circuits but there is no prescribed value for the timer for the domestic calls. Values recommended for international circuits are of the order of 1.5 to 3 minutes which may be relevant for originating network but may not be relevant for the terminating networks.

1.4. The Telecom Service Provider (TSP) who has lowered the timer value argued that initiative was taken to reduce the impact on their network resources. But other TSPs argued that it is affecting customer’s experience and instead of reducing impact on network resources, may increase the impact due to repetitive call attempts. To address the concerns of the customers and also to avoid the situation where TSPs might start lowering the timer value only from network’s perspective and not considering customers’ perspective, Authority felt that there is need to consult with stakeholders on the issues.

1.5. To understand and resolve the issues, TRAI held meetings on 23rd of August and 6th of September 2019. However, no consensus could be achieved with the TSPs upon the appropriate duration of the alert.

1.6. The Authority undertook a public consultation in the matter by releasing a consultation paper on “Duration of alert for the called party” on 16th September, 2019 seeking comments of stakeholders by 30th September, 2019 and counter comments by 7th October, 2019. In response to the Consultation Paper, the Authority received comments from elevan stakeholders and counter comments from one stakeholder. An Open House Discussion was also held with the stakeholders at New Delhi on 17th October, 2019.