DoT awaits legal opinion on creation of ombudsman under Trai

The Department of Telecom has sought legal opinion on creation of an ombudsman under sector regulator Trai which aims to give impartial hearing to telecom subscribers on their complaints.

"The DoT has sought legal opinion on some points in the framework for telecom sector ombudsman. Once the legal opinion is received, the framework will be modified, if required, and it will be shared with Trai," an official source said.

The Trai Act may be modified to create an ombudsman with power to penalise operators or compensate consumers.

Telecom grievances mechanism till date has largely remained within control of service providers. Under present norms, telecom subscribers can register a complaint with the call centre of their service provider. It can be escalated to nodal officer of the telecom operator in case the complaint is not resolved and thereafter Appellate Authority set-up by the service provider.

In most of the cases, specially billing disputes, consumers complained of getting no ...