Consumer groups oppose Trai plan to scrap advisory panel for telecom complaints

New Delhi: Consumer advocacy groups have opposed the telecom regulator's proposal to abolish the advisory committee and shift the appellate authority empowered to handle consumer complaints entirely to a senior management employee of telecom operators.

In its amendments to the draft Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulation, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) proposed to do away with the advisory committee, a two-member panel comprising a representative from the telecom operator and a consumer organisation representative, stating that routing appeals through the committee was making the appellate process inefficient and ineffective owing to scheduling difficulties and unavailability of members.

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Telecom operators supported the move without raising any objection. Consumer groups, however, disputed the claim of inefficiency.

The Civil Action Group, in its comments to the Trai, said the delays in resolving consumer complaints are entirely attributable to the telecom service providers who routinely bypass the regulations by taking one to three months to route complaints through the committee. Another consumer group said telecom service providers often do not report grievances to the committee for months and operate with a closed mindset.

Consumer groups argued that eliminating the advisory committee would remove a critical structural safeguard and create an institutional bias, leaving consumers without an independent voice when resolving appeals.

They proposed modernising the committee instead, through digital advisory consultations, virtual participation or implementing strict 5-7 day turnaround timelines for the committee to provide its input.

The regulator's draft regulations also proposed restructuring telecom services providers' interactive voice response systems to add new mandatory options such as an appeal category for consumer complaints and ways to connect to human agents to register their complaints. The Trai also mandated mobile apps and web portals to provide real-time context-specific status updates and dispatch notifications across multiple channels, including acknowledging the complaint and sharing technician allotment details.

Telecom operators said the proposed changes require massive overhauls to their IT systems, call centres and network interfaces. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea requested a transition period of six-nine months instead of the proposed 30 days. Telcos also opposed the massive compliance burden of generating highly granular key performance indicator reports, which the Trai had proposed to be submitted to it and to the telco's own board of directors or CEO every quarter.

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On the financial penalties proposed by the TRAI on improper or unsatisfactory dismissal of complaints and appeals, telcos said the term 'unsatisfactory' is highly subjective and relies on a regulator's arbitrary audit judgement rather than proven negligence.

Reliance Jio argued that the proposed penalties are a double jeopardy for the sector as operators are already heavily penalised for network and billing issues under the Quality of Service regulations.

Consumer groups, however, supported the financial disincentives proposed by the TRAI, arguing that without strict monetary penalties, complaint resolution timelines become symbolic procedural formalities with no real deterrence for operators.