Report of Consumer Outreach Programme conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) at DBCE-Goa.

A Consumer Outreach Programme was conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) at Don Bosco College of Engineering (DBCE), Goa on  March 14, 2023 in association with the Department of Science & Humanities, DBCE.

The event started with a broad overview of the programme by Mr. Manish Raghav, Joint Advisor, TRAI, Bengaluru. Dr. Neena Panandikar, Principal, DBCE welcomed the gathering and also expressed her gratitude to the TRAI for conducting the programme at DBCE. Rev. Fr. Kinley D’Cruz, Director, DBCE speaking on the occasion said “Consumer rights protection and consumer grievance redressal is important for any company to survive and grow”. He also highlighted the important role played by TRAI in the field of telecom regulation.

In the first session Shri Brajendra Kumar, Advisor, TRAI, Bengaluru gave a talk on “Telecomm Consumer Awareness”. Speaking about TRAI he said “The mandate of TRAI is to safeguard the interests of both the consumers as well as the telecom service providers.” He also spoke about many interesting topics including mobile number portability, cyber frauds, fear of tower radiation, etc.

The next session was on “Evolution of 5G Tech, Challenges and Roll out” by Col. (Retd) Kapil Handa, Principal Advisor, Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA), New Delhi. He enriched the audience with an engaging presentation on the evolution of Telecomm services right from 1G to the currently launched 5G. He said “The telecom field has evolved very rapidly and India has always ensured that it is on par with the global technology growth.” Key capabilities of 5G, the requirements of 5G networks and the associated challenges are some other topics on which he spoke. This was followed by a Q&A session.

The programme was attended by about 130 faculty and students of first year Computer Engineering and Electronics & Computer Science (ECS) of DBCE. Also present was Dr. Kala Nayak, Registrar and Head of Department of Science & Humanities, DBCE and Shri K. Chandra Choodan, Joint Advisor, TRAI, Bengaluru.

Representatives of telecom service providers Jio, Airtel, VI and BSNL, who also attended the programme, gave brief presentations about their telecom services.

Mr. Harison Cota, Asst. Prof., DBCE, proposed the vote of thanks.

The programme was compered by Ms. Reaiah Fernandes, student of first year ECS.