New Delhi, and may face a penalty of up to Rs 20 lakh per quarter per circle if they fail to dispose of consumer complaints, as per new rules published by the sector regulator on Monday.




The (Trai) has tightened the consumer grievances redressal mechanism for telecom and internet operators.




Trai, in a list of penal actions on service providers for disposal of complaint or appeal in contravention of the fourth amendment made in Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations, said, "The amount of financial disincentive payable by a service provider..shall not exceed Rs 20 lakh per quarter for the licensed or authorised service area."




The regulator has mandated telecom and internet service providers to set up round-the-clock operational complaint centres for redressal of complaints with human representatives available for a minimum of 16 hours per day.




In case a consumer is communicating with an AI agent, then the person should be notified and the complaint centre will have to operate under human oversight.




The communication with the consumer care number needs to be free. Besides this, the service providers will have to offer the complaint filing option through their websites and mobile apps as well.




The service provider will need to acknowledge the complaint or request with a docket number and keep updating consumers unless the grievance is resolved.




The time limit for filing an appeal following disposal of a complaint has been revised from 30 days to 15 days, as consumers would normally prefer to appeal as soon as possible, whereas a longer time allowed unduly increases compliance requirements.




Trai has added a new mechanism of "Feedback Survey" in the updated norms. ​ Upon resolution or closure of a complaint or appeal, the service provider shall conduct an online feedback survey to assess the consumer's satisfaction with the resolution.




"The service provider shall publish the results of such feedback surveys on its website on a quarterly basis," Trai said.




Under the amended rules, service providers have been mandated to place a quarterly report on the redressal of complaints, appeals and the results of feedback surveys before its CEO or Board of Directors.




"This has been done to ensure suitable review and oversight of the disposal of complaints and appeals by the service providers at the highest level," the regulator said.




Trai may conduct periodic review of the functioning of the grievance redressal mechanism of the service providers.




In case the regulator finds contravention in complaint disposal, then a penalty of Rs 1,000 will be levied per violation, and Rs 5,000 per instance by the appellate authority, but the total amount will not exceed Rs 20 lakh per quarter per authorised service area.




The regulator can impose a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh for failure to submit the quarterly performance report as per the amended rule.