The new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) quality of services (QoS) regulations, according to the Cellular carriers Association of India (COAI) will put more financial strain on telecom carriers and raise compliance costs without improving customer outcomes.

Major telecom carriers are represented by COAI, which expressed dissatisfaction with TRAI's new regulations, citing issues with equipment theft and right of way (RoW) regulations.

“The industry expresses concern over the proposed regulations, which not only tighten benchmarks but also shift from quarterly to monthly reporting and site to cell level reporting in many cases,” said SP Kochhar, director general of COAI.

“In fact, the QoS parameters prescribed in the new regulations have not been introduced by any other regulator in similar economies,” Kochhar added.

As per Kochhar's report, telecom operators continue to face difficulties related to rights of way (RoW) when obtaining authorization for the installation of cell towers and fiber-optic cables on both public and private land. According to him, the added need for street furniture for 5G networks exacerbates the situation even more.

According to telecom providers, network performance and signal quality are negatively impacted by interference from a variety of sources, including electromagnetic interference and other wireless devices. According to the association, equipment theft and the use of unauthorized boosters and repeaters by unauthorized agents both have a detrimental effect on QoS.

In addition, QoS is greatly impacted by authorities' frequent removal of overhead fiber. According to them, telecom operators have little control over these outside variables that have a negative impact on service quality.

With effect from October 1, Trai unveiled new QoS standards on Friday to improve network performance and transparency. The first penalty for breaking any QoS benchmark is `1 lakh. The penalties will rise to a maximum of `2 lakh for a second offense and `3 lakh per benchmark for subsequent offenses.

Additionally, the agency has implemented a tiered penalty structure that imposes fines of `1 lakh, `2 lakh, `5 lakh, and `10 lakh, contingent on the severity of the transgression.

To help customers make informed decisions, Trai has required service providers to include technology-specific mobile coverage maps on their websites (2G/3G/4G/5G) as part of the new standards.

Furthermore, service providers must post QoS performance against specified metrics on their websites in order to improve transparency in QoS performance reporting.