With telecom service quality in the country languishing much below stipulated norms, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wendesday warned of strict action that could encompass a fine of up to Rs 100,000 or compensation for customers, in case the players wilfully defaulted in performance repeatedly.

Hardening its stand against such operators, Trai said if players continued to offer services below norms in the long run, it may even recommend that the licensor (Department of Telecom) look at the issue of continuation of licence.

"This continued shortfall in quality of services cannot go on. Till now we were making the shortcomings public and trying to persuade operators to improve services quality, but now there will have to be other action, as this is tantamount to violation of Trai's regulation on Quality of Service," Trai chairman, M S Verma, told reporters in New Delhi.

With the latest QoS survey for bas and cellular telephony segments rating the overall service quality for landline phones to be 'poor,' Verma warned: "If the quality of service does not improve and the concerned operator is willingly failing to meet our norms, we will seek compensation for consumers."

Trai could also seek a fine (of up to Rs 100,000), for violation of its QoS regulations by the operators, he said.

Big names fail to satisfy customers

Almost all the big names -- be it Reliance, Airtel, IDEA or BPL -- have been found wanting by the telecom regulator in terms of giving satisfaction to cellular customers for reliability, network performance and availability.

None of the players in the fast expanding cellular market in India, which boasts of over 1 crore (10million) subscribers today, have met the prescribed service quality standards in terms of network performance, reliability and availability, a survey of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said.

The story is the same in case of basic services, dominated by state-owned BSNL, where operators were found short of meeting the standards of network, reliability and availability and overall the service quality levels were rated 'poor.'

Perhaps as exception, BSNL met the prescribed norms in Andhra Pradesh, the survey said.

However, the survey pointed out that level of customers' satisfaction was much higher in case of cellular services compared to the basic ones.

Virtually every cellular service provider crossed or came close to the 90 per cent mark in terms of 'customers scores on satisfaction with service provision'.

In sharp contrast, except for HFCL customers in Punjab and Shyam Telelink in Rajasthan, none of the basic service providers in any circle could score 90 per cent satisfaction mark for service provision.

In case of basic services, no operator was found to be meeting the important benchmark with respect to providing new connections after registration of demand, the survey which covers October 2001-June 2002 period, said.