Telecom service providers and net neutrality backers have been on opposite sides of the fence on several issues, including differential pricing, and now free data, on which consultations started on May 19.
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The Myspeed App gives TRAI real time data from customers and shows the mobile data speed of each operator in a given area on a real-time basis.
“This is just the beginning of number of steps that TRAI is taking to increase transparency in the telecom sector”, said RS Sharma, chairman, TRAI.
The regulator, which is exploring a “toll free” number like facility for accessing online platforms, received comments from 11 telecom operators including Internet service providers, 25 companies and organisations, 14 individual who addressed questions raised in the paper and hundreds of one-line comments from individuals.
Trai has released a draft of tweaks in consumer protection regulations, that is aimed to introduce the internet to a a wider audience. “In the consultation paper we will discuss what can be the average criteria”, Sharma said.
Pointing towards the specified norms with regard to call drops, he said, “There are no corresponding benchmark in data world which is as important as the voice world”. Not only that, the app automatically send the results to the Trai’s analytics portal.
“You promise me to take me in cab at 100 kilometres per hour and then you drive at a speed of 10 kilometre”, he said.
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The SUC issue has been going back and forth between Trai and DoT for the last several months, with the latest move being pushed by the Cabinet that asked DoT to get Trai’s recommendations and fix the rates. The TRAI order was, however, quashed by the Supreme Court.
