TRC to set minimum speed standard for ISPs this month

Vows to take strict action on false advertising

By Azhar Razak 

Sri Lanka’s telecom regulator, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) says it will, in future, deal strictly with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) if they fail to provide customers the broadband speeds they advertise.

According to the head of TRC, the regulator will introduce a ‘minimum speed standard’ in January 2011 for both volume based internet connections and unlimited connections with a view to monitor speeds and penalise those who fail to deliver the promised speed.

“We are hoping to set a ‘minimum speed standard’ this month which the ISPs would have to follow and maybe in the next six months there will be a mechanism to take action on those who do not deliver,” TRCSL director general, Anusha Palpita told The Bottom Line.
However, he said that he had observed that all the ISPs, who presently provide broadband internet services, had increased their level of service, both in terms of speed and quality, following the setting up of a fully equipped broadband monitoring unit at TRC premises in September 2010.
“During a test done about three months ago, we had found that the ISPs concerned had only delivered about 20 percent of what they had promised to deliver. However, following the setting up of our monitoring unit, broadband operators have improved their download speeds by over 60% which ensures a much faster service to broadband users during peak hours,” Palpita pointed out.

The TRC website which recently published the first set of broadband download speed test results conducted on fixed broadband services said it found all the ISPs namely Dialog, Lanka Bell and Sri Lanka Telecom provided far lower speeds than advertised by them. TRC had selected both fixed wired and fixed wireless services (ADSL and WiMAX) for the test and had recorded the international download speeds during peak hours. “With regard to connection speeds related to mobile broadband, we are in the process of finalising the results and we will publish them in the next few weeks,” consultant at TRC, Sanath Siriwardena told The Bottom Line.

He said that the TRC is also planning to set a higher ceiling on the usage limit provided to customers for volume based broadband and indicated that lower usages limits provided by ISPs, such as those below 10GB, may be removed.
“In future, we are also looking at setting a ceiling on usage limits since we believe limits such as those offered below 10 GB a month is not sufficient for customers,” Siriwardena said.

In the TRC speed tests, download speeds were measured at the peak time rates between a test terminal and servers located in the United States and United Kingdom. The tests were conducted over a period of 24 hours on a regular basis for the last two months while the peak times measured were between 9 a.m. and 12 midnight.

In a further development, TRC has proposed the introduction of a speed testing facility in its own website which would enable users to test their broadband download speed by running a service. The regulator has meanwhile urged subscribers to complain to the respective operators if the subscribers are not receiving proper broadband download speeds similar to the result pattern experienced by the TRC.
According to the recent Budget 2011 proposals, the TRC has been requested to regulate the broadband costs in order to increase broadband penetration.



http://www.thebottomline.lk/2011/01/02/page1.html 

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