News Details  :

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has proposed to improve the quality of broadband services by specifying the maximum number of subscribers that can be packed into a single unit of bandwidth.

In a consultation paper issued on Thursday, the telecom regulator said that under international practice, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ensure that only 50 subscribers are accommodated in a single 2 Mbps line.

For corporate subscribers, the international average is at 25 users. While TRAI has not suggested any specific ratio for Indian ISPs, it has sought industry views on the same. “There have been complaints from the subscribers regarding inadequate broadband speed being provided by Internet Service Providers. Most of the complaints allege that the available broadband speed is lower than the subscribed speed,� said TRAI.

The move is aimed at ensuring that subscribers get the speeds for which they have sought the connection. At present, subscribers with 256 Kbps broadband line may not get that speed. The telecom regulator has proposed to set up a monitoring mechanism wherein subscribers get assured speeds.

Internet technology permits use of bandwidth by several users simultaneously. The number of users who can share the given bandwidth without impacting the quality of service depends on the applications, frequency of use and other parameters. This leverage allows ISPs to accommodate more subscribers using given bandwidth, and will also reduce cost of the access. This ratio of number of subscribers per unit of bandwidth is commonly known as contention ratio and it may vary depending on the quality of service the ISP is planning to offer. The higher the ratio the more will be the congestion levels. TRAI has said that there was a need to fix the minimum bandwidth requirement.

“In order to fix certain parameters and apply it uniformly to all service providers, certain ‘thumb-rule’ has to be prescribed to estimate minimum bandwidth requirement of ISPs having given number of customers of different type, keeping in mind the quality of service issues. The thumb-rule will determine minimum bandwidth requirement for different types of subscribers keeping in view international practices,� said TRAI