While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India programme is trying to usher in a digitally empowered society, quality of service (QoS) of the vital telecom and internet infrastructure that powers digitization has not received much attention. Before we embark on deploying 5G technologies and networks, as is being advocated by the telecom regulator, department of telecommunications (DoT), operators and telcos, it is time to step back and assess the associated QoS issues. “Consumer broadband labels” are very similar to the labels on packaged food products and energy ratings on electric appliances. If published by the service providers, these labels disclose speed, reliability, service limits and conditions, pricing and other information for the offered broadband services to consumers in a standard and easily understandable format. These labels will establish a formal contract on QoS/QoE between a service provider and a consumer. Moreover, it becomes a tool for consumers to compare the services offered by different service providers, while enabling informed decision making. Now that mobile broadband has become the spine of the “digital economy”, it is the right time for us to start an initiative such as this to promote the required transparency and accountability in broadband-service provisioning in the country.

(Live Mint)