The directive was given by Trai chairman justice SS Sodhi at an open session where MTNL came under attack from subscribers and various organisations. Sodhi said that quality of service parameters set by Trai cannot be achieved overnight. He added that with the improvement of service, operators can be in a position to take on the increasing competition. "The quality of service has to be embedded in the management philosophy of telecom operators as it has affected consumers," he added.

MTNL chief general manager S Ramani Iyer said that the company has given a thrust on improving accessibility and increasing telephone density. He added that the concept on quality of service was comparatively new and MTNL was committed to improving it in the years to come.

Iyer said several initiatives had already been taken by MTNL toimprove quality. Optical fibre cables have been installed for 20 buildings in Mumbai which will be increased to 200 shortly. A service has been launched under the customer service management system which caters to complaints on wrong billings.

Iyer admitted that there were delays in releasing a telephone directory for Mumbai since 1994. "However, I want to make it clear that these delays were not in our hands as we had to depend on a printer," he added. He said that MTNL would sign an agreement in a week with the printer for production of directories. The company would also try to publish an instruction guide before this.

MC Venkatram, former MTNL chief general manager, Mumbai, said a special method should be evolved to send bills on time to customers. Nanik Rupani, chairman of the telecommunications committee of Indian Merchants' Chamber, said that MTNL should not "summarily disconnect" the phone without taking a look at the track record of the customer. He called for introduction of a caller identitysystem in view of mounting extortion threats in Mumbai.

MR Sabnis, a subscriber, said that MTNL should provide a meter to the customer for call recording and that telephone adalats should be held as per schedule. Trai member NS Ramchandrant told the gathering that the association has proposed a national long-term term numbering policy with a standard number length of eight digits. According to the said policy, the customer will have to pay a certain amount to get "golden" numbers, he added.

Earlier, Sodhi released a consultation paper on maintenance of a register for interconnection. Considering that major traffic originated from or terminated in the local network, interconnection was extremely important for a new entrant.

He said that subscribers also need effective interconnection between networks so that they can access all other telephone subscribers and avail themselves of other telecom services. "A seamless network is therefore essential for viability and competition in providing service," headded.

The consultation paper said that the Trai was framing model guidelines for interconnection which would prescribe the information required to be interconnected in the agreement.

Insight

-- time for competition

The quality of service for MTNL, or for that matter DoT, is even more important now that subscribers are being asked to cough up far more in local call charges. The basic question is why should they pay extra for shoddy service. Service quality will improve only when there is competition in the field. Cost structures also undergo a change due to competition. That is why Trai should raise local charges only when competition has been around for some time and it is possible to get a true picture of costs. Taking the costs of the local monopoly as a benchmark would be wrong.