TRAI issues draft service quality norms, paving way for differential pricing on 4G and 5G

The Telecom Regulator Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday rolled out draft quality of service norms to accommodate mobile network slicing technology by telecommunications companies. This paves the way for telecom operators to charge differently for different services like 4G and 5G. At present, users pay the same rate for 4G and 5G services.

The draft rules also propose to allow telecom operators to charge different rates for 4G, 5G and other services that they offer.

The move by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) upholds network slicing technology recently rolled out by Bharti Airtel. However, other leading telcos Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea did not support the technology, considering it a discrimination against subscribers.

"...before launch of any new network slice, service provider must ensure that sufficient capacity is available in the network and shall submit the details, as per the format and manner prescribed by the Authority, before launch of such network slicing," the Draft Amendments to the Standards of Quality of Service of Access (Wireline and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Regulations, 2024, said.

TRAI has proposed slicing of the network only when an operator has sufficient spectrum capacity.

The draft proposes to change the “typical download and upload speed offered to the subscribers” sentence in the existing rule with “technology-wise typical download and upload speed offered to the subscribers for each tariff offering”.

The move will allow telecom operators to charge differently for different services like 4G and 5G. At present, users pay the same rate for 4G and 5G services.

TRAI, however, has added a condition that the tariff offered for a particular service should have measurable download and upload speeds. The tariff will be non-compliant to the rules if 80 per cent of the tested download speed is lower than the advertised speed by the operator.

According to the proposed rules, if the customers fail to get promised downloads, then service providers will need to notify the same to the affected customers and take corrective action, before submission of next compliance reports to the regulator.

The regulator has proposed the concept of allocation of a chunk of spectrum, or Physical Resource Block (PRB), on 4G and 5G networks whose usage should not exceed 80 per cent during slicing.

"Whenever PRB utilisation exceeds 80 per cent for any five days in a month, service providers must take necessary action to augment the capacity in a timely manner so that PRB utilisation reduces below 80 per cent," the draft said.

The regulator has fixed August 26 as the last date for submitting comments and September 7 for counter comments.