MUMBAI: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) rapped leading operators, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular on the knuckles for failing to meet the Quality of Service standards in the December quarter, reported news agency PTI.

Data disruptor Reliance Jio was handed a fine of Rs 31 lakh based on the TRAI-defined service quality parameters such as Point of Interconnect congestion, accessibility of call centres and customer care. TRAI’s fine pertains to multiple circles or service areas in which Jio offers it service.

Idea Cellular was fined Rs 28-29 lakh for the December quarter for its inability to match benchmarks on call drops, metering and billing, both pre-paid and post-paid, accessibility of call centre or customer care and its timelines for multiple circles.

Bharti Airtel, the biggest player in the market, was slapped with a Rs 23 lakh for the same period for non-compliance on parameters entailing metering and billing (postpaid and prepaid) and accessibility of call centres, and stipulated response time on operators answering calls in certain circles.

Vodafone was fined Rs 9 lakh for non-compliance of select criteria like time-bound refund of deposits after closure, response time for calls answered by operators, as well as call drops.

Aircel and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) too were handed fines by the regulator.

The fines were in line with TRAI’s renewed focus on quality benchmarks in the telecom sector.

Last year, the regulator had ordered telcos to adhere to the quality of service benchmarks from October 1, 2017.

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