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Consumer Rights under TRAI Act By

K.B.BRAHMADATHAN B.Sc ( Engg), M.Tech, F.I.E.T.E ,ITSChief General Manager-Chennai Telephones-BSNL

Welcome To A Talk on

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Competition….Competition….

Opening up of telecom sector to competition, with licences for a number of services being granted, the telecom sector has seen a tremendous growth in the recent past both in terms of number of operators,and subscriber base.

Along with this growth, there are, of course, problems for the stakeholders, including the consumers.

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TRAI & ConsumerTRAI & Consumer.. .. TRAI does not deal with the direct

responsibility of redressing consumer grievances rather it sets standards

Standards for quality of service are fixed by TRAI.

Service provider measures Quality of service.

TRAI also appoints independent agencies for Quality Measurements.

Consumer interests are thus protected.

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The Current ScenarioThe Current ScenarioLets

fly by Night!!

I have the capacity to carry any

thing !

Which way

to go?

competitiocompetitionn

FreebeesFreebees, ,

FreebeesFreebees

Free Free unlimited unlimited talktimetalktime

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How to Sell These Days…How to Sell These Days… A golfer, playing a round by

himself, is about to tee off, when a salesman runs up to him and yells, “Wait! Before you tee off, I have something really amazing to show you!"

The golfer, annoyed, says, "what is it?""It's a special golf ball," says the salesman. "You can never lose it!"

Special Special Golf ballGolf ball

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How to sell these days…How to sell these days…"Whattaya mean," scoffs the

golfer, "you can never lose it? What if you hit it into the water?"

"No problem," says the salesman. "It floats, and it detects where the shore is, and spins towards it."

Magic GolfballMagic Golfball

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How to sell these days…How to sell these days… "Well, what if you hit it into the woods?"

"Easy," says the salesman. "It emits a beeping sound, and you can find it with your eyes closed."

"Okay," says the golfer, impressed. "But what if your round goes late and it gets dark?"

"No problem, sir, this golf ball glows in the dark! I'm telling you, you can never lose this golf ball!"

Beeping and Beeping and glowing ballglowing ball

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Sales !Sales !The golfer buys it at once. "Just one

question," he says to the salesman. "Where did you get it?"

"I found it”.Moral.. Never believe in tall claims about

a product.

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What is best?What is best?

While buying a new product do not expect to buy the best every time with all facilities.

Today’s best is tomorrow’s “Antique”.

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What Is Best?What Is Best?Like choosing a PC

or Life partner.

We always feel that, having chosen one ,if one had waited for a bit longer you’d have got a better model!

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Today’s Nifty Products ..Today’s Nifty Products ..During the heat of the space race in the

1960's, NASA decided it needed a pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules.

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Today’s Nifty Products..Today’s Nifty Products..After immense research astronaut

pen was developed at a cost of $1 million. The pen worked and also enjoyed as a novelty item back here on earth.

Do you know what Russians did?

–Used a pencil

•Moral.. Choose a product for your need.

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Quality....Quality....An astronaut in space was asked by

a reporter, "how do you feel?""How would you feel," the astronaut replied, "if you were stuck here, on top of 20,000 parts each one supplied by the lowest bidder?“.

Moral. Quality has a price.

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TRAI Regulations..TRAI Regulations..

The TRAI came out with two regulations namely :-

(I) regulation on quality of service of basic and cellular mobile telephone service, 2000 (2 of 2000) on 5th of July, 2000;

(Ii) regulation on guidelines for registration of consumer Organisations/non-government Organisations (NGOs) and their interaction with TRAI,2001 (1 of 2001)

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What a What a nice TVnice TV

My lord !my My lord !my Tv was not Tv was not

repairedrepaired

The Consumer Protection The Consumer Protection Act, 1986.Act, 1986.

Under the act, TRAI is supposed to lay down quality of service standards and TDSAT(Telecom Disputes settlement and Appellate tribunal) is supposed to adjudicate disputes between a service provider and a group of consumers.

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Present Interactions by TRAI…Present Interactions by TRAI…By and large,Consumer Organisations

& NGOs with sufficiently long background in the telecom sector, were permitted to be registered with TRAI.

The authority (TRAI) interacts with these Organisations on regular basis and it is at-least twice in a year.

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What TRAI Is Doing..What TRAI Is Doing..

A number of workshops, seminars, and interactions have been organised for building up the capacity of these organisations.

These were done with a view to create awareness of the intricacies of the telecom sector amongst the consumers.

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What TRAI Is Doing Contd... What TRAI Is Doing Contd... By virtue of the provisions of sub-

clause (v) of clause(b) of sub-section (1) of section 11 of TRAI act, 1997, TRAI is supposed to:

Lay-down the standards of quality of service to be provided by the service providers.

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What TRAI Is Doing.. What TRAI Is Doing.. Ensure the quality of service and

conduct the periodical survey of such service provided by the service providers.

Protect interests of the consumers of telecom services.

ConsumerConsumerService Service providerprovider

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BSNL’S Customer Care…..BSNL’S Customer Care….. Customer contacts service provider mainly for

– Fault clearance Dial xxxx1198 ( IVRS) Dial 1500.( Call center) Meet staff, executives DGM, GM…….CGM

– Commercial complaints Customer service centre. Commercial officer

– Billing complaints AOTR DE exchange DGM, gm……CGM

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Complaint Booking…..Complaint Booking…..

Fault registration at– Exchange/CSC.– SSA HQ– Circle Office..– Corporate office– DOT– DPG– Through internet

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Customer CareCustomer Care

FIELD FIELD

DGM/GMDGM/GM

CGMCGM

Corporate Corporate OfficeOffice

DOTDOTDPGDPG

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Chennai Telephones Customer Chennai Telephones Customer Grievance MechanismGrievance Mechanism

CGMCGM

FIELDFIELD FIELDFIELD

DE,DGMDE,DGM

GMGM

CAO, DGMCAO, DGM

GMGM

TECHNICAL GRIEVANCETECHNICAL GRIEVANCE BILLING GRIEVANCEBILLING GRIEVANCE

Every Complaint received Every Complaint received by CGM, Chennai by CGM, Chennai Telephones is acted Telephones is acted upon.For minor upon.For minor complaints the customers complaints the customers are spoken to, and for any are spoken to, and for any major complaint, reply is major complaint, reply is given in writinggiven in writing

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System OverviewSystem OverviewGRIEVANCES

PG CELL (BSNL/Circle/SSA/Any other Place)

TEL

EMAILFAX

LTR

IN PERSON

REGISTRATION

Data Validation

Docket

Sub Level Users

REPORTSEDIT

Managers

Dkt. No. Ack. Slip

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Main Types of GrievancesMain Types of GrievancesTelephone/Telecom service faultyDelay in shifting of telephoneExcess billingNon-receipt of billWrong disconnectionRefund of deposit

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Main Types of Grievances ….Main Types of Grievances ….CorruptionMiscellaneous grievanceSTD boothUrban/Rural dispute

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Grievance ClassificationGrievance Classification

Receipt-source wiseMode-wise

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Source of Grievance ListSource of Grievance List Honorable PM’s office Honorable MOC Honorable Cabinet

ministers Honorable MPs State govt. Ministers MLAs Cabinet secretariat TRAI DOT PG cell BSNL PG cell

CMD / Directors BSNL / MTNL

BSNL Officers Govt. Organizations VIPs Reputed Private

companies BSNL Customers General Public Press Others

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Receipt Mode of GrievanceReceipt Mode of Grievance Commercial Cell Direct by hand/In person E-mail Fax By Post 1094 / 1095 service Phone Office No. Telegram. Exchanges. Customer service center.

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Summary ReportsSummary ReportsAll grievances registered during a given

periodPending grievances registered during a given

periodDisposed grievances registered during a

given periodGrievance Analysis – Daily, Weekly,

Monthly

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Additional Avenues Available Additional Avenues Available for Redressal….for Redressal….The Indian Telegraph Act 1885 provides

for the appointment of an arbitrator to go into complaints and grievances under sec 7B.

Consumer protection act 1986 looks into customer complaints.

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The BSNL Initiative…The BSNL Initiative… The telecom Adalats at the circle level

are headed by the chief general manager (CGM) and that at the district level are headed by the concerned secondary switching area (SSA) heads.

The information of holding Adalats by CGM and SSA head are being given wide publicity through local newspapers and electronic media.

During Adalats cases are settled across the table.

AdalatsAdalats

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The BSNL Initiative…The BSNL Initiative…This is an internal arrangement

only available in case of a public sector operator.

As per available information similar arrangements do not exist for private sector operators.

Our working is so transparent that we are criticised for the same.

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TRAI Benchmarks & Initiative TRAI Benchmarks & Initiative …..…..

PARAMETER VALUEProvision of Telephone 7 Days where there is

no waiting list.Fault incidences per month per 100 Telephones

3

Percentage of faults repaired by next day

More than 90%

Mean time to Repair Less than 8 hours

Billing credibility Disputed bills not more than 0.1% of bills issued.

Repeat faults Less than 1%

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The Magical Name…. The Magical Name…. One way of ensuring fairness to

consumers is through establishment of an office of ombudsman for the telecom sector.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication IndustryAustralia: The Australian government had

appointed the telecommunications industry ombudsman (TIO) in 1993 as a body independent of the industry, the government and the consumer organizations.

Ombudsman has responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the scheme.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication IndustryThis an industry-funded scheme,

deriving its income solely from the members who are charged fees for complaint resolution services.

Members consist of telecom carriers,telephone carriage providers and internet service providers.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication IndustryA member is charged complaint

handling fees if the TIO receives a complaint from one of its customers funding system acts as an incentive for members to keep TIO investigations to a minimum by developing and maintaining effective.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication Industry

United kingdom: In U.K., The communications act, 2003

sets out the powers of the regulator, Ofcom (office of communications).

The telecom ombudsman, known as Otelo has been operating since January 2003.

Otelo is independent of the communications industry and the regulator.

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Ombudsman In The Telecommunication Industry It is managed by a council, which

comprise people who, in most cases are not from the communications industry.

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The Ombudsman in the The Ombudsman in the Indian ScenarioIndian ScenarioThe ministry of finance has

appointed an ombudsman for the insurance sector.

The reserve bank of India has also appointed 15 ombudsmen for the banking sector.

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The Ombudsman in the The Ombudsman in the Indian ScenarioIndian ScenarioInsurance sector:All the expenses on the

establishment of ombudsman and his staff is to be met by the insurance companies who are members of the insurance council.

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The Ombudsman in the The Ombudsman in the Indian ScenarioIndian ScenarioTo have a formal method of

customer grievance redressal especially for issues related to private operators –one of the solution is the ombudsman.

The role of TRAI as regulator must be on enforcing quality of service and penalising operators for slippages in target.

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Towards Timely Consumer Towards Timely Consumer RedressalRedressalEmpowerment to enforce punishment on

the operator in case of unsatisfactory remedial measures.

Enforcement of transparent complaint escalation procedures for all operators.

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Thank YouThank Youfor Your Patient for Your Patient

Hearing !Hearing !