One of the important objectives of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is to safeguard consumer interests and create consumer awareness. Towards this objective, TRAI organizes Consumer Outreach Programmes (COP), workshops on capacity building of consumer organisations and seminars etc. on issues of consumer interests and protection. In this series, TRAI (Regional Office- Kolkata) organised a COP at Hotel Japfu, Kohima, Nagaland to apprise the public about various initiatives taken by TRAI to safeguard consumer interests, informed a press release by TRAI. Besides the public, distinguished guests, all Telecom Service Providers participated in the programme. Sushil Kumar, ITS, Addl. Director General (T), Department of Telecom, Govt. of India graced the occasion as the Chief Guest of the event and Sh. Mohammed Ali Shihab, IAS Secretary(IT), Govt. of Nagaland was the guest of honour. M.K.Yadav, DDG, DoT and Sandeep Bharadwaj, DDG, DoT, M. Gul. Mufti, GM were the other distinguished guests of honour of the event.
In his welcome address, Ashim Dutta, Jt. Advisor, apprised the legal and administrative framework under which various stakeholders such as, Central and State governments, the service providers are executing their roles to provide desired quality of service to the consumers.
Sandeep Bharadwaj, DDG, presented a pen picture of the telecom connectivity status in the State of Nagaland in terms of 4G/5G/Broadband connections. Meanwhile, Mufti, GM, highlighted the Government’s recent initiatives in terms of 4G saturation project, BharatNet etc. M. K. Yadav, DDG, DoT apprised the participants about the roles of the different players In the telecom ecosystem, e.g. DoT, TRAI, Service Providers, State governments etc. Mohammed Ali Shihab, Secretary (IT), highlighted the improvement in network connectivity in the state in the recent years. He also informed the audiences about how the Government of Nagaland is extending full cooperation to the various stake holders for the provision of good broadband connectivity to every nook and corner of the State.
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Sushil Kumar, Addl. DG(T), DoT, while addressing the session, laid emphasis on the need of good broadband connectivity for the people of Nagaland and how everyone is working in a collective manner for this purpose.
During the programme, through a detailed presentation, participants were educated about the provisions of different consumer centric regulations, directions and orders relating to Value Added Services (VAS), Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), Mobile Number Portability (MNP), Complaint Redressal Mechanism, Data services and Tariff etc. Participants were also informed about the benefits of various Mobile apps (TRAI MySpeed app, TRAI DND 3.0 app and TRAI Mycall app), Tariff portal and Network coverage maps developed by TRAI for consumer empowerment and how consumers can take advantage of these apps /portal.
Participants were also briefed on various recommendations made by TRAI to facilitate growth of telecommunication and about TRAI’s new regulations/ Directions on UCC and how they should be extra careful about different telecom fraud like tower fraud, fraudulent message/ calls etc.
A presentation on electromagnetic radiation from the cellular tower was presented by Meena, Director, DoT. The presentation dealt with the unfounded concerns of a section of the citizens regarding radiation from cellular towers through scientific explanations and government’s measures. Kihika Chishi, OC, Cyber crime PS, Nagaland Police, gave an informative and useful presentation on cybercrime and cyber security measures and the precautionary measures to be taken by the ordinary consumers to protect themselves from such crime or frauds.The presentation was followed by an interactive session wherein participants’ queries related to various aspects of telecom services were responded by TRAI team/ TSPs.
