India Favours Multi-Stakeholder Model for Internet Governance Mechanisms

India Favours Multi-Stakeholder Model for Internet Governance Mechanisms 



India is for a multi-stakeholder model for Internet Governance Mechanisms. The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology held consultations last week with a view to preserve the character of the Internet as a unified, dynamic engine for innovation and to encourage equity and inclusion. The multi-stakeholder consultation attended by academia, business, civil society, technical community and government discussed issues for enhancing the accountability of the Internet Corporation Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Many stakeholders appreciated the transition of Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to the Global Multi-stakeholder Community as a positive development. The meeting concluded with a call to all stakeholders to participate actively in all global processes keeping in mind the perspectives of the Indian communities. 

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TRAI Notifies Tariff Amendment Orders Relating to Commercial Subscribers 


TRAI has today notified two Tariff Amendment Orders (TAO) relating to TV services for commercial subscribers, one applicable for TV services being provided through analog cable TV systems (Non-CAS areas) and the other one applicable for TV services being provided through Digital Addressable cable TV systems (DAS).

The salient features of these TAOs are as under:
·               ‘Subscriber’, “Ordinary subscriber’, & ‘Commercial subscriber’ have been defined.
·               Total forbearance has been prescribed both at the wholesale & retail level with respect to tariffs for Commercial subscribers and the broadcasters have the option to enter into tripartite agreements with the Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs) and the commercial subscribers, if so desired.
·               Broadcasters have been mandated to offer their channels/bouquet of channels for commercial subscribers, on non-discriminatory terms and conditions.
·               The Broadcasters have been mandated to file their tripartite agreements, if such agreement is done with commercial subscribers, with the Authority within 30days of entering into such agreement.
·               TV Signal to commercial subscribers have to be provided by DPOs only in accordance with “Policy Guidelines for Up-linking/Down-linking of Television Channels”

These Tariff Amendment Orders have been notified in accordance with the Hon’ble TDSAT’s Order dated 9th March, 2015in the matter of Indian Broadcasting Foundation& Ors Vs TRAI (Appeal No 7(C)/2014) . It is expected that with the coming into force of these changes in the regulatory framework for commercial subscribers, distribution of TV services to commercial subscribers would be streamlined and would be available to them at competitive rates. It is also envisaged that it would balance the interests of all the stakeholders in the value chain and bring in complete transparency in the business transactions.

Full text of the notifications is available on TRAI’s website:www.trai.gov.in.

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TRAI Releases Report of the “Independent agencies engaged for Assessment of (i) Implementation and effectiveness of various regulations, directions and orders 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.

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.

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.

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 (www.trai.gov.in).

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.