ravi_patent 28 Report post Posted December 17, 2008 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/...how/3849057.cms CHENNAI: You send an SMS and it doesn't get delivered. Voice quality cracks and you have to run out of your home to receive a call. And finally, when you call up the help services, you aren't satisfied. Sounds like a mobile connection in Chennai, doesn't it? While the city is boasting of rampant telecom growth, customers have many a times been caught on the wrong foot due to poor service. The same has been captured by a survey released by telecom regulator TRAI, which reveals the state of the quality of service and customer satisfaction with telecom services in Chennai. Based on tests conducted by independent agency IMRB International (mandated by TRAI), the survey shows that concerns exist in parameters such as share of connections with good voice quality, complaints issued and paging channel congestion. Sample this: Against a TRAI benchmark of over 95% connections with good voice quality, Bharti Airtel and Aircel have been able to provide good voice quality with regard to only 84% and 90% of calls respectively. "It is our constant endeavour to augment customer experience by enhancing performance and delivering greater efficiencies," an Airtel spokesperson said, while other telcos remained tight-lipped on the survey and its findings. SMS is another service where at least one telecom service provider has faltered. In this service, one of the most important parameters is called paging channel congestion, where paging channels are used to send paging requests for locating a mobile station and for transmitting mobile directed or broadcast messages to mobile station(s) located over a wide coverage area. TRAI has a benchmark of less than 1% for this parameter. But the survey reveals that Reliance Communications was graded at over 1.6%, which essentially means there have been instances of customers getting delayed messages and perhaps not receiving them at all. The Reliance Communications spokesperson could not be reached for comment. The instances of complaints per 100 issued bills have also been higher than the TRAI stipulated benchmark. Against the benchmark of less than 0.1%, state run BSNL and private operator Vodafone have received complaints for 0.22% and 0.11% for every 100 bills generated. Repeated telephonic attempts for comment from senior BSNL (Chennai) officials were unsuccessful. Lastly, customers trying to access helplines also met with dissatisfaction. "The survey reveals that there is need to improve the satisfaction level of subscribers with respect to help services, billing performance and supplementary services across the service providers," TRAI said in a release. Around 30-35% of customers of Vodafone, BSNL and RCom in the city are not satisfied with the help services. The TRAI benchmark says that companies should have less than 10% of customers in this parameter. All companies - Bharti, Vodafone, BSNL, R-Com, Aircel and Tata Teleservices - have 71-84% of post-paid customers satisfied with billing performance. The TRAI benchmark is at least 90%. The performance in the prepaid segment is a little better (78-82%) but still far from the TRAI benchmark of at least 90%. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted December 17, 2008 Operators still to meet benchmarks Business Line l 17 Dec l New Delhi A majority of subscribers in Tamil Nadu and Chennai are satisfied with their mobile connection. According to survey conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India more than 70 per cent of mobile subscribers are satisfied with the service in Tamil Nadu. However, none of the operators meet the TRAI specified benchmark of having more than 95 per cent satisfied subscribers. There are six operators providing services in Chennai and Tamil Nadu. About 75 per cent of Vodafone’s subscribers are happy with the service making it the highest ranking operator in the State in terms of perceived customer satisfaction. In Chennai, Bharti is the leader with 81 per cent of its subscribers content with the service. Tata Teleservices is at the bottom in both Chennai and Tamil Nadu with 76 per cent and 70 per cent of subscribers respectively perceived to be satisfied with the service. However, consumers in these two telecom circles are not aware of the various customer complaint redress options available to them. For example, only 3 per cent of Bharti Airtel’s user base in Tamil Nadu is aware of the company’s nodal officer for redressing grievances. About 57 per cent of Reliance Communications subscribers in Tamil Nadu are satisfied with complaint resolution by call centres. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sadikk 301 Report post Posted December 17, 2008 Good survey. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raccoon 53 Report post Posted December 18, 2008 For example, only 3 per cent of Bharti Airtel’s user base in Tamil Nadu is aware of the company’s nodal officer for redressing grievances. Don't know about Tamil Nadu; but here in Maharashtra circle, the redressal mechanism simply does not exist! Airtel simpy seems to have given dummy emails and phone numbers for their non-existent Nodal and Appellete Authority! The emails dont fetch any reply (you only get an auto-reply) and if you try to call on their phone numbers, they NEVER connect... not once!!! The numbers and email ids are a sham, given to show that they are confirming with regulations! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ssr 10 Report post Posted December 18, 2008 TRAI should make them to pay crores for evry %age of unsatisfied customers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted December 18, 2008 TRAI proposes tighter norms for quality of service Business Line l 18 Dec l New Delhi The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has proposed to tighten the quality of service norms for telecom companies. According to existing benchmarks, operators are supposed to keep the call drop rate to less than 3 per 100 calls. TRAI has proposed to change this to 2 per 100. The regulator has suggested other changes in a consultation paper on reviewing the existing quality of service parameters. For example, it has proposed to monitor the billing and metering credibility for pre-paid subscribers. Currently, bills of post-paid subscribers are monitored. A suggestion has also been made to reduce the tome period for making refunds by operators from four weeks to one week. “Any review of quality of service regulations should streamline the quality of service parameters monitoring, measurement and frameworks to the regulatory enforcement. There is also a case to consider the new inputs from the service provider. The review also aims to reduce or eliminate information which has lesser or lower order significance,” TRAI said. The regulator said that it will start monitoring congestion levels for fixed line operators also. Currently, TRAI monitors congestion levels for mobile companies. TRAI has been monitoring quality of service being offered by telecom players based in fixed benchmarks. Till now none of the operators have completely met the quality standards prescribed by the regulator. However, TRAI has not been able to enforce the quality norms since its powers to impose penalty has been challenged by the operators. There is a case pending with the telecom tribunal in this regard. “Thus the key issue remains as to how the quality of service is to be ensured and what relief should be given to customers for poor quality of service or what other measures can be taken for enforcing regulations,” TRAI said. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ravi_patent 28 Report post Posted December 19, 2008 forget the operators ,even trai doesnt reply or seem to take care of complaints. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
