Many a failing

New Delhi, Jan. 28: The telecom industry may be adding over six million mobile connections every month, but most operators fail to meet the telecom regulator’s customer satisfaction benchmark.

According to the latest survey by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the quality of service provided is way below satisfactory.

Only one of the 128 cellular licensees in the country met the overall customer satisfaction benchmark of 95 per cent.

The sole operator meeting the benchmark was Airtel in the Mumbai circle.

Idea and MTNL in Delhi were the worst performers on an overall satisfaction scale in the metros — both having scored 84 per cent.

In the A, B and C telecom circles, not a single operator managed to meet the benchmark. “Overall customer satisfaction level is poor in all the circles,” the survey said.

On network performance parameters, only 14 of the 128 operators met Trai’s benchmark index of 95 per cent. In the metro circles, Airtel in Mumbai surpassed the benchmark with 99 per cent. Reliance Communications operating in Mumbai was the worst performer with an index of 68 per cent.

In A, B and C telecom circles, BSNL and R-Com recorded the worst satisfaction level in network performance with an index of only 1 per cent in Uttar Pradesh (east) circle.

The survey said 75.5 per cent of operators achieved 90 per cent satisfaction level in the pre-paid segment against 52.34 per cent in the post-paid segment.

In helpline services, 89 out of 123 service providers did not meet the benchmark, while 90 out of 105 operators failed to meet the norms in the maintenance segment.

The survey also found high inter-operator congestion in BSNL circles at 47.11 per cent and Reliance Telecom circles at 47.37 per cent. This was followed by MTNL at 33.33 per cent. In the Hutch circles, 29 per cent of calls made to other operators faced congestion.