TRAI finally talks about Fair Usage Policy

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Advertising a broadband plan for higher download speed (e.g.
3 to 4 times faster than the original plan) by paying fixed
monthly charges. If it fails to disclose that once the
customer exceeds a particular data download limit, the
broadband speed would be restricted as per the original
plan.

Change this airtel's crap plans are gonne for sure trai
 
Change this airtel's crap plans are gonne for sure trai

Airtel tends to disclose that the speed falls back to 256kbit/s in the small print. What they should regulate is a MINIMUM, reasonable fair usage policy based on the price of the service, or indeed, as I have suggested, the wording in the advertisement - for example:

8GB @ 4mbit/s can not be considered as "4mbit/s unlimited", nor can 50GB @ 4mbit/s be considered "unlimited", but could be advertised as "4mbit/s flat-rate" because for many people this would exceed what they actually use (and by many people, I mean many people who would buy this plan if it were more reasonably priced).

The price should come in to play: 50GB @ 4mbit/s for Rs1799 should be deemed too expensive, but 50GB @ 4mbit/s for 899 might be OK, and 4mbit/s with an 8GB FUP at any price is deemed stupid and ridiculous and should be advertised only as a temporary speed hump.

Customers should not end up paying exhorbitant rates per GB either:

[*]for their plans (Rs15-20 seems to be a sweet spot) or
[*]for over-use charges if they go over their allocation on a data plan (so if I use 3.5GB on MTNL's 599 2.5GB plan, I shouldn't end up paying over Rs1,000, I should pay something more reasonable, like Rs620!) - in other words, no more tariffs like Rs0.5 (50 paise) per MB, more like Rs0.02 (2 paise) per MB!
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This legislature would have to be revised and implemented yearly.

TRAI also should open up consultation papers on:

[*]peering (I don't mind paying a monthly fee, but traffic should be FREE, not Rs25/GB),
[*]right of way for private telcos or opening up the local loop (I have no problem paying MTNL/BSNL Rs100-200 per subscriber, they just won't let me),
[*]Merging BSNL and MTNL (1 telco to rule them all) but splitting them up between retail and wholesale for the purpose of LLU,
[*]removing speed restrictions on data plans (removing premiums on speed and disallowing plans like 50GB @ 2mbit/s for Rs1699 and 50GB @ 4mbit/s for Rs1799 - pay for 50GB data and you get it at LINE SPEED),
[*]new ceiling tariffs for International Bandwidth - down from 1.92 crores to about 50 lakhs per STM (also to be revised every year so that consumer tariffs can also be revised),
[*]revising broadband speeds to at least 512k, 768k or 1mbit/s, disallowing anything that drops below this floor to be called broadband,
[*]truth in advertising - cease use of the word unlimited in any context UNLESS the service is actually unlimited. I personally vote for "flat-rate" as this relates to price not usage.
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---------- Post added at 02:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 AM ----------

Having now fully read the paper to which you've linked, this mostly seems to be about mobile tariffs, nothing to do with broadband or FUP?
 
yeap. its mostly related to mobile tariffs. but it does mention broadband somewhere in between.
 
yeap. its mostly related to mobile tariffs. but it does mention broadband somewhere in between.

1 paragraph is all that is mentioned. The thing is, I think that for the most part ISPs already disclose in [most of] their advertising that the speed comes down after X GB.
 
Advertising a broadband plan for higher download speed (e.g.
3 to 4 times faster than the original plan) by paying fixed
monthly charges. If it fails to disclose that once the
customer exceeds a particular data download limit, the
broadband speed would be restricted as per the original
plan.

righto. failure to disclosure is a very small problem.
 
Just asking out of curiousity, @mgcarley, do they(TRAI) call you when there is any meeting with the ISPs? And don't you have direct access to TRAI higher officials?If yes, why don't you kindly talk to the TRAI about all this FUP and other sh!t thats thr in Indian BB....?
 
where is it being held?.admin will you go there to voice our concern?.you can make a good representative for us.
 
Just asking out of curiousity, @mgcarley, do they(TRAI) call you when there is any meeting with the ISPs? And don't you have direct access to TRAI higher officials?
If yes, why don't you kindly talk to the TRAI about all this FUP and other sh!t thats thr in Indian BB....?

Some things I get notified of, other things not. They usually seem to ask all the class-A license holders, but even then I guess we're too small at this point for them to bother asking us, considering the not having launched yet.
 
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