TRAI organises consumer outreach programme in Kohima 

DIMAPUR — With an objective to apprise the public about various initiatives taken by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to safeguard consumer interests and create awareness, the TRAI regional office at Kolkata conducted a consumer outreach programme (COP) at Hotel Japfu in Kohima on Wednesday.

An update from TRAI stated that Sushil Kumar, additional director general  of Telecom department, Government of India, attended the programme as the chief guest, while Mohammed Ali Shihab, secretary of IT, Government of Nagaland, was the guest of honour. MK Yadav, Sandeep Bharadwaj and M Gul Mufti from the Telecom department were the distinguished guests.

In his welcome address, Ashim Dutta, joint advisor, apprised the legal and administrative framework under which various stakeholders such as central and state governments and the service providers are executing their roles to provide desired quality of service to the consumers.

It stated that Sandeep Bharadwaj presented a pen picture of the telecom connectivity status in the state of Nagaland in terms of 4G, 5G and Broadband connections, while Mufti highlighted the government’s recent initiatives in terms of 4G saturation project and MK Yadav apprised the participants about the roles of the different players in the telecom ecosystem.

Mohammed Ali Shihab highlighted the improvement in network connectivity in the state in the recent years. He also informed the audience about how the Government of Nagaland is extending full cooperation to the various stakeholders for the provision of good broadband connectivity to every nook and corner of the state.

It added that Sushil Kumar laid emphasis on the need of good broadband connectivity for the people of Nagaland.

Report stated that 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.

Besides, 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 those 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 of 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.

Meanwhile, Kihika Chishi, office in-charge of cyber crime police station, gave a 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.

Report further stated that the presentation was followed by a lively interactive session wherein participants’ queries related to various aspects of telecom services were responded by TRAI team.

Public, distinguished guests and all the telecom service providers participated in the programme.