Telecom panel to decide on spectrum allocation, fee

The Telecom Commission will meet on Friday to discuss the number of 3G players in a circle, the proposed 2 per cent administrative fee and the revised spectrum charges of 3 and 8 per cent for telecom operators.

The meeting is expected to take a final decision on how many players would be allowed in a circle for 3G spectrum, depending upon the spectrum availability in each circle, sources at the department of telecom (DoT) said.

The commission will also decide on a proposal for increasing the minimum annual spectrum charges to three per cent of gross revenue for 4.4 MHz spectrum from the existing two per cent.

But, it is as yet not known how the government will take a final call on spectrum allocation with the variations in spectrum availability is all 22 telecom circles in the country and with no 3G spectrum available in Rajasthan and the North East.

Telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) , meanwhile, issued a consultation paper for revamping the parameters of quality of service (QoS) for wireline as well as cellular services. TRAI in its paper said the QoS performance by service providers should be transparent and put in public domain.

TRAI has proposed that the benchmark for the parameter of call drop should be revised from the existing less than 3 per cent to less than or equal to 2 per cent.

Call drop refers to the break in connection during a phone conversation, and Trai's proposal implies that out of 100 calls, not more than 2 calls should be dropped.

Also, a new parameter has been proposed for metering and billing of pre-paid customers. Currently, only post-paid customers' billing credibility is assessed through QoS regulations.

Trai has also taken up the issue of response time for assistance to customers, apart from proposing a benchmark for basic services (wireline).

TRAI wants all the service providers to have uniform record keeping procedures and a system of internal auditing of QoS by service providers.

Performance of cellular mobile service providers will be benchmarked on two indexes - Network Service Quality Index and Customer Service Quality Index.

It has proposed a 10-point score for evaluating the performance against each parameter. TRAI also proposes fines to enforce service quality.