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

1. Panel Discussion ‘Status of Dispute Settlement Mechanism in the Telecom, Broadcasting and Cable Sectors in India’ Satya Pal C.G.M.T. Gujarat Circle 24th March-2007 Presentation by

2. Gujarat Telecom Circle Welcomes Honorable Mr. Justice C.K. Thakker Judge Supreme Court of India

3. BSNL Gujarat Telecom Circle Welcomes TDSAT Members • Hon’ble Mr. Justice Arun Kumar • Chair Person • Mr. Vinod Vaish, • Member • former Secretary to the Government of India • Lt. Gen. D P Sehgal(Retd) • Member

4. BSNL Gujarat • Mr.Nripen Mishra, Honorable Chairman TRAI. • Mr. G.S.Grover, Member (services) Telecom. Commission • Mr. A.K. Sinha, Honorable CMD BSNL. Welcomes

6. BSNL Organization BSNL Units Corporate 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

7. Gujarat Telecom Circle

8. Consumer Grievances 1. Services • Fault repairing • New Provision • Billing 3. Behaviour

9. 198 Service: • 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

10. Second stage of grievance handling 12727 Services: • 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.

11. 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.

12. Control Room Opened at the time of Natural Calamities or accidents.

13. Written Complaints • Letters / Fax /Emails. • Received at Public Grievance cells and at various levels of officers, and replied to the complainants after settlements.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. Open House Sessions • Once in three Months at each districts. • General Problems of Group of Customers. • Seeking suggestion for Service Improvement.

17. 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.

18. MP’s Meeting • 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.

19. 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.

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

21. Consumer Forums • 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.

22. Consumer forums are available at • District level • State level • National level

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

24. 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.