TRAI may give telcos time for upgrading their IT systems

The telecom sector regulator is open to granting more time to telecom operators for upgrading their IT systems to comply with the new and tighter reporting rules on base tower stations, officials aware of the matter told ET.

Telecom operators are holding consultations with officials from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regarding the new rules that have come into effect. Since a large amount of data has to be submitted and the format is also different, the industry needs some time to upgrade their systems.

"We are open to hearing suggestions from the telcos and if they need some time to upgrade their IT systems," an official said on condition of anonymity. The regulator, however, will not give any concessions on the rules.

Trai on April 26 announced stringent reporting rules around base stations, asking operators to provide granular details like site location, radiating frequency, backhaul connectivity, technology utilised like 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and the time of commissioning of a site, as it looks to improve the quality of service (QoS) and address the problem of call drops. The operators were against the regulator's move to seek such granular data.

"We are not asking for any confidential data. The telcos track all this data at their network operations centres, and they just need to submit that to us. It can be done in an automated way," another official said.

The regulator feels that the quality of service in telecom needs to be better and accountability has to be fixed. When telcos start reporting the details around base tower stations, the regulator will be in a better position to track the fault lines.

As per the new rules, telcos must provide exact details of a tower site in a district or town, or village as mentioned on the local government directory. Earlier, the data used to be submitted on the telecom circle level.

Companies must provide all these details within 21 days of the end of a quarter. Currently, they are not required to provide details such as the date of commissioning of a base station and if the site is connected by fibre or not, and details of 5G base stations and cells.

Improving QoS has been the topmost priority of TRAI as there have been rising instances of call drops. When Anil Kumar Lahoti took charge as TRAI chairman in January, he said more stringent regulation and implementation were needed to check the instances of call drops.

Currently, QoS is measured at the telecom circle level and even if a few sites remain down for a long time, the outage does not get captured in the data as it averages out. If the accounting is at a district level, the data will be more granular, and telcos can be penalised in case even a few sites remain down for long, officials said.

www.economictimes.indiatimes.com dt. 07-05-2024