Access the full consultation paper here: The standards of Quality of Service of access (wireline and wireless) and broadband (wireline and wireless) service regulations, 2024. – [ PDF ]

On August 5, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a Consultation Paper proposing amendments to existing telecom Quality of Service (QoS) regulations. TRAI is seeking comments from telecom stakeholders, like service providers, industry bodies, consumers, etc., for their comments and feedback. 

  • Submission deadline: August 26, 2026
  • Counter comments deadline: September 7, 2026
  • Comments must be submitted in a specified format to: [email protected]

Here are brief pointers from the TRAI consultation paper covering 5G network slicing. It includes coverage maps to demonstrate network availability, guidelines for significant network outrage disclosures and silence call rate disclosures:

How TRAI plans to monitor the resource allocation in 5G network slicing? Through Physical Resource Block (PRB) utilization figures in 5G New Radio (NR) networks. These are the conditions proposed by TRAI:

  • Telcos should maintain PRB utilisation below 80%: “Whenever PRB utilisation exceeds 80% for any five days in a month, service providers must take necessary action to augment the capacity in a timely manner so that PRB utilisation reduces below 80%.”
  • Remove network slicing if the utilisation capacity can’t be reduced: “However, in case PRB utilisation cannot be reduced below 80% even after a period of month then such cells must be removed from network slicing.”

Why is monitoring network resource allocation important in 5G network slicing? Because when the resources are limited, the telcos ideally shouldn’t divert the resources meant for the normal or low-tier paying subscribers. This will lead to creation of multi-tier access or quality on the same network for different consumers. 

“If two automotive companies, say Maruti and Toyota, seek similar services [through network slicing], they should not receive different treatment.” – TV Ramachandran, Broadband India Forum (BIF) President at TRAI Day event [Full report].   

TRAI also proposed that

  • Whenever a new network slice is created, telcos should submit details to demonstrate the sufficient capacity within 21 days
  • IF there are one or more network slices in the 5G network for mobile, each slice will be considered as a separate tariff offering. 
  • And, for each network slice, Quality of Service (QoS) compliance parameters should be followed separately.

In its explanatory note, TRAI referred to these global regulatory approaches to network slicing: BEREC (EU) | OfCom (UK) | ARCEP (France) | FCC (US). 

What telcos should do if there is a significant network outage? According to this consultation paper, an outage is classified as significant when:

  • the broadband service in a district is unavailable for more than four continuous hours, or
  • when more than 10% of subscribers experience a complete loss of service or a material degradation (reduction of 20% or more in download/upload speeds) for more than four continuous hours.

In such outages, the telcos should: 

  • Immediately report to TRAI: All significant network outages must be reported to the TRAI within 24 hours from the start of the outage or the onset of material degradation.
  • Submit post-restoration summary: Once service is restored, providers must file a summary report detailing the root cause and the actions taken to resolve the issue.

Additionally, telcos should provide compensation to the users: 

  • Postpaid Users: Must receive a proportional rent rebate based on their subscribed tariff for the actual number of outage days, applied in the next billing cycle.
  • Prepaid Users: Must have the validity of their active tariff offering extended by the same number of days the outage persisted.

TRAI noted that if any outage duration exceeds 12 hours within a single calendar day, then it is to be considered as a full day for compensation calculations.

Telcos should publish network coverage maps on their website for both wireless voice or wireless broadband services: These guidelines, mandated under Regulation 15 of the Standards of Quality of Service Regulations, 2024, establish the requirements for map preparation and display. The TRAI said that it may issue additional detailed instructions on format and presentation in the future.

The four coverage levels are broadly described as follows:

  • Excellent: Possibility of using mobile voice, SMS and data services outdoors and, in most cases, indoors.
  • Good: Possibility of using mobile voice, SMS and data services outdoors in most cases, and indoors in some cases.
  • Fair: Possibility of using mobile voice, SMS and data services outdoors in most cases, but probably not indoors.
  • No Coverage: Unlikely to be able to use mobile voice, SMS and data services, whether indoors or outdoors.

A few guidelines for coverage maps: 

  • All spatial data must conform to relevant Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. 
  • Coverage maps must be based on actual measurements, either through physical measurements or through network analytics or based on the standard prediction models. 
  • Published maps must achieve an accuracy of 98% or better, and providers must self-validate their maps to ensure accuracy.
  • Telcos should use prescribed technical parameters, grid resolutions and signal strength thresholds to classify coverage into above-mentioned four levels: Excellent, Good, Fair and No Coverage.
  • Telcos should share the service-wise geospatial coverage map data through API in the prescribed format (Json or GeoJson). 

Monitoring ‘silence call rates’ to ensure quality of service: TRAI also proposed a “Silence Call Rate” benchmark aiming to measure and reduce instances where calls experience prolonged periods of no audio transmission. Instances like arbitrary call silences can substantially degrade call quality and negatively affect the overall paying-consumers’ experience. Here are a few conditions proposed by TRAI.

  • Silence gap shouldn’t be more than four seconds: A call is considered a “Silence Call” when it contains any instance of a continuous Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) gap of 4 seconds or more. RTP refers to the standard network protocol used to deliver audio and video over IP networks.
  • The silence rate benchmarks should be less or equal to 1%: The Authority has proposed a benchmark of ≤ 1% for the Silence Call Rate based on its proposed formula to calculate this benchmark score. 
  • If the calls that may contain multiple instances of RTP gaps of 4 seconds or more, each such instance within a call is counted separately.

Why does TRAI want to regulate and monitor silence calls? 

  • Independent tests and consumer complaints: TRAI noted that their independent drive Tests have revealed that a large percentage of calls experience silence issues, with rates as high as 22% in some cases. According to its explanatory note, consumers have also similarly reported such instances to regulators.
  • To fill the current regulatory gap: TRAI said that existing QoS Regulations do not prescribe any parameter for silence call rates, as it was assumed networks would drop calls if continuous silence exceeded perceptible limits.

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