CUTS International, in association with The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kolkata, and Deepalaya organized a half day Seminar on “Information Disclosure for Broadband Services: Empowering Informed Choices in the 4G Era” on 16th May 2018 at The Lalit Great Eastern Kolkata.

Shri Sadhan Pande, Hon’ble Minister-In-Charge, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of West Bengal graced the occasion as the Chief Guest.

The other dignitaries, gracing the occasion were: Mr. Bratindra Bhattacharya, Director, CUTS International; Ms. Angana Guha Roy Chowdhury, Deputy Director, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Mr. Pranab Kumar Ghosh, Secretary, Deepalaya; Mr. Rahul Singh, Policy Analyst, CUTS International; Mr. Kallol Kumar Paul, Scientist – F, Bureau of Indian Standards, Kolkata; Mr. Syed Kazi, President, North East ICT Association of India; Mr. Aloke Mookherjea, Chairman, Howden Solyvent (India) Private Limited and Mr. Amrit Lal Saha, President and Director, Consumer Protection Association, Agartala, Tripura.

The objective of the seminar was to highlight the need for Information Disclosure Mechanisms, and to discuss different perspectives on Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) for Broadband Services in India.

The seminar was a part of the Consumer Broadband Labels initiative, which focused on designing a standard information disclosure mechanism, in form of a Broadband Labels which were envisaged to help consumers in understanding their broadband plans better, and to facilitate an informed decision making before the purchase of a broadband plan and also assessing the QoS being rendered, after sales.

The session was opened by Mr. Bratindra Bhattacharya by delivering the formal Welcome Address. He highlighted the importance of raising capacity of and awareness among consumers to demand better QoS and QoE of broadband services.

Shri Sadhan Pande, Minister-In-Charge, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of West Bengal, shared his perspectives on “Information Disclosure for Broadband Services: Empowering Informed Choices in the 4G Era”, wherein he recognised the importance of broadband services. He further said that the State Government has initiated many critical e-governance services for its citizens, which would be impactful if the quality of broadband internet is enhanced and is consistent. In order to take this discussion forward, he announced that the State Government would soon call a stakeholder meeting, wherein the state telecom operators, civil society organisations such as CUTS, BCC&I and Deepalaya, academia and other interest groups would be invited to deliberate on improving the broadband services in West Bengal.

Ms. Angana Guha Roy Chowdhury, Deputy Director, BCC&I mentioned that the telecom ecosystem plays a huge role in offering connectivity and services to consumers and they must actively participate in such discourses.

Mr. Aloke Mookherjea highlighted the importance of Digitization in the rural areas through which the rural people can establish in their life.

Mr. Pranab Kumar Ghosh, Secretary, Deepalaya, called upon CSOs to be more actively involved with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) by enrolling as Consumer Action Group (CAG) members and raise consumer issues related to broadband services at multiple forums.

This seminar brought together around 80 representatives from the East and the North-East region of India, cross-cutting various stakeholder categories such as industry players, civil society, academia, individuals, etc. to constructively discuss the existing QoS mechanism, the challenges and the scope of improvement in the existing regulatory framework. The seminar was followed by interactive session.