NEW DELHI: Flaying the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for shifting the blame on cellular operators for sub-standard quality of service, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has written to the regulator, stating that the required Quality of Service (QOS) benchmark for mobile phone services cannot be met as laid down by it.

Stating that the action to be taken against those operators whose networks have congestion levels above the benchmark of 0.5 per cent has been selective, COAI Director General T. V. Ramachandran, in his letter to TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal, has stated: "We believe that such selective actions by the authority reflect an underlying recognition of the ground reality that in this era of rapid growth, it is not possible for the industry to strictly meet the QOS benchmark fixed by the authority."

"It is a matter of grave concern to us that having been unsuccessful in its attempts for timely augmentation of Points of Interconnection (PoIs), the TRAI is now seeking to shift the blame on cellular operators," the letter said, adding that between September and November in 2005, the congestion level has actually gone down at a number of points of presence.

"All PoIs are for two-way exchange of traffic, that is, there is no separate circuit for incoming and outgoing calls.

Therefore, if congestion is noted in one direction of the PoI circuit, the same degree of congestion is bound to be in the other direction also. Under these circumstances, we believe that it is incorrect of the authority to target the operators at one end only."

According to the letter, TRAI, on its part, has also been fully aware of these aspects relating to interconnection and that it has tried to address the same through its Reference Interconnection Order.

However, all these efforts of TRAI have been unsuccessful for one reason or another. "We would like to point out that under the Act, the Authority is duty bound to protect the interests of service providers," Mr. Ramachandran observed.

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