‘‘Status of Dispute Status of Dispute Settlement Mechanism in Settlement Mechanism in the Telecom, Broadcasting the Telecom, Broadcasting and Cable Sectors in India’and Cable Sectors in India’

Satya Pal C.G.M.T. Gujarat Circle

Presentation by

24th March-200724th March-2007

Panel DiscussionPanel Discussion

Gujarat Telecom Circle

Honorable

Judge Supreme Court of India

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Hon’ble Mr. Justice Arun Kumar Chair Person

Mr. Vinod Vaish, Member, Former Secretary to the Govt of India.

BSNL Gujarat Telecom Circle Welcome

TDSAT Members

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BSNL Gujarat

Mr.Nripen Mishra,Honorable Chairman TRAI.

Mr. G.S.Grover,Member (services) Telecom. Commission

Mr. A.K. Sinha,Honorable CMD BSNL.

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BSNL Evolution

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Lim ited(BSNL)

w ith effect from 1-10-2000(as 100 % Govt ow ned com pany)

D epa rtm ent of T elecom O pera tion D epa rtm ent of T elecom Services

D epa rtm ent of T elecom Department of Post

Pos t & T e le graph D epartm ent

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BSNL Organization

BSNL UnitsCorporate Office • Telecom Circles – (Ninteen

Telecom Circles+ Two metro circles)

• IT Circle

• NCES Circle

• QA Circle

• T&D Circle

• Telecom Store Circle

• Project Circle – (Four)

• Maintenance Circle –(Four)

• Training Circles – (Three)

• Telecom Factory

D irec tor(O pera tion)

D irec tor(C & M )

D irec tor(Plg & NS )

D irec tor(F inance )

Chairman & M anaging Direc tor

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Consumer Grievances

1. Services Fault repairing New Provision

2. Billing

3. Behaviour

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Toll Free Service. Same Number though-out SDCA. Any complaint pertaining to fault repair. IVRS Based 24 Hrs Service. Language option available as local language

Hindi and English. Records are available and could be centrally

monitored. (Dotsoft based). Faults pending for long-duration come to

notice immediately. More than 90% complaints are handled on this

service, to the satisfaction of the customers

198 Service:

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Toll free Number. Based at Ahmedabad Circle Office. Available from anywhere in Gujarat

State. Operator Controlled. Persuasion with SSAs (Districts) for the

grievance settlements. Grievance Settlements are recorded.

Second stage of grievance handling 12727 Services:

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Call Centers

•Toll Free Service

•24 Hour Service

•All Basic Phones inquiries

•Internet Inquiries

•Broadband Inquiries

•24365 (Gujarat BSNL-Mobiles)

•Toll Free Service

•24 Hour Service

•All Mobile Service inquiries, & GPRS Setting, Activation etc.

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Telephonic Calls:

To, Junior Telecom Officer, Sub-divisional Engineer, Divisional Engineer, Dy. Gen. Manager /Area Manager General Manager. And Dy Gen. Manager (Operation) at Circle

Office as Circle PG Nodal Officer. PGM (Operation) CGM Telephone Numbers are printed in

Telephone Directory, Displayed at Various Customer Service Centers and Web-sites also.

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Control Room

Opened at the time of Natural Calamities

or accidents.

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Written Complaints

Letters / Fax /Emails. Received at Public Grievance cells

and at various levels of officers, and replied to the complainants after settlements.

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Personal Visits

Customer Service Centers Available at Taluka level. Multiple Nos. of CSCs available at cities. Single Window Concept. Sub Divisional Engineer is In-charge.

Between 15:00 Hrs to 16:00 Hrs: Declared as visiting hrs for all the officers

of the rank of SDE, DE, DGM, GM, PGM, CGM.

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Telephone Adalats All the individual Cases Frequency: Once in Two Months in Each Districts (SSA Level) Once in three Months in State Level (Circle Level). Composition: (Distt. Level): - PGM / GM as Chairman.

- IFA and DGM of SSA.- GM / DGM of Circle Office.

Composition: (Circle Level): - CGMT, - PGM (O) - GM Finance

Powers: Full Power to decide and settle the case.

Year TA Held Cases Recd Cases Settled

2003-04 98 1014 1014

2004-05 107 928 928

2005-06 110 592 592

1/4/06 to 31/12/06

68 310 297

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Once in three Months at each districts.

General Problems of Group of Customers.

Seeking suggestion for Service Improvement.

Open House Sessions

Year Open House session held

2003-04 66

2004-05 76

2005-06 69

2006-07 up to Jan-07

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Telephone Advisory committee (TAC)

Eminent personalities selected by the communication ministry as its members

Act as co-coordinator between BSNL and public.

Come up with various user friendly suggestions

Formal meeting schedule once in 6 months.

TAC Period TAC Meetings held

1/7/2002 to 31/7/2004

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1/10/2004 to 30/9/2006

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New TAC is formed with effect from 01-01-2007

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All district heads are in touch with MPs for suggestions.

CGM also meets with MPs to get their view points.

MPs also give complaints telephonically and in writing. MP’s Meeting

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ARBITRATION

In case the disputes are not settled then the arbitrators are appointed by the competent authority under the provision of the “Arbitration Act”.

Appeal to the decision of the arbitrator is heard by the Hon’ble High court.

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SNCategory of cases

Cases recdCases replied

Cases Pending

1 Minister 46 38 82 CMD 39 31 83 VIP 34 29 54 MP 15 15 05 DPG 11 11 06 PG Cell 47 37 107 MLA 11 9 28 TRAI 3 3 09 Total 206 179 32

1304 1254 50No of Public Complaints from 1-4-06 to 28-2-07

Details of numbers of VIP Cases handled up to 12-3-07

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Historically, it was the civil courts and High courts who used to provide remedies to the consumers.

On realization that remedies through civil courts and high courts are becoming time-consuming and expensive.

Parliament came out with the concept of “Consumer Forums.”

Individual consumers get relief for their individual grievances through consumer forums.

They would be informal, easy to approach, faster and inexpensive.

Consumer Forums

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Consumer forumsare

available at

District level State level National level

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Installation of CDMA BTSs to cover all the areas of Gujarat(290 BTSs installed)

Installation and improvement of GSM BTSs network all over Gujarat.(1552 BTSs installed)

Launching customer friendly, easy to understand schemes for Gujarat LKLB is the latest one.

Continuous maintenance and up gradation of existing infrastructure like outdoor plants maintenance, switching audit etc.

Measures taken by BSNL Gujarat Telecom Circle to increase consumer satisfaction.

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CDR based billing(IOBAS) for all POIs (to avoid any billing dispute with operator)

Single window concepts in various customer service centers to cut down the delay due to procedures.

The timing of customer service centers has been modified. CSC operates from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M.

Telephone billing and accounting has been fully computerized.

After initiating the various measures, BSNL commands 100% reliability in its telephone billing to the customers.

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