Almost two months after the Supreme Court of India dismissed TRAI’s decision to impose penalty on telecom operators for call drops, the telecom regulator is now back with an application for mobile phone users which will enable it to measure data speeds at various locations.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has launched an application called MySpeed which will let users check data speeds offered by their operators in real-time. The App can be downloaded from Android Play store.
According to TRAI chairman R S Sharma, real-time data collected by this app would be posted on TRAI analytics portal and would be used for setting the benchmarks. TRAI is planning use this data to bring out a consultation paper soon to fix quality of service benchmark for wireless data. If things go as per TRAI’s plan, this consultation paper should get ready in a month’s time, and once that happens, we can hopefully look forward to enjoying better Internet speeds at home, in office or on road.
One must note, TRAI has taken the decision to write this consultation paper because telecom operators cited “law of physics” that restricts them from guaranteeing minimum data speeds to users. Considering this, now TRAI wants them to ensure an average speed, which sure looks like a smart move.
As far as the MySpeed app is concerned, this application allows you to measure your data speed experience and sends the results to TRAI. The application captures and sends coverage, data speed and other network information along with device and location of the tests.
As per TRAI, “The app does not send any personal user information. All results are reported anonymously. While this application gives TRAI details of your data experience, sending a report to TRAI does not constitute a complaint.â€
“In case of poor experience, users are requested to register a complaint with their network service providers,†TRAI further added.
Earlier this year, the regulator mandated the telcos to compensate the consumers with Rs 1 per call up to 3 dropped calls per day starting from January 2016. The same was upheld by the Delhi High Court but was dismissed by the Supreme Court of India said that the call drop levy is arbitrary and unconstitutional in nature.
(Richa Sharma is working with TMI as contributory author)