The regulator’s ‘property rating system’ seeks to incentivise investment in improving indoor 4G and 5G connectivity, which lags behind recent improvements in outdoor mobile coverage
Addressing poor indoor mobile coverage with connectivity ratings for residential and commercial properties
On 13 May 2025, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) published its draft guide for rating properties for digital connectivity. The rating system, which was introduced in an October 2024 regulation issued by the TRAI, seeks to address persistently poor levels of indoor mobile coverage throughout the country, even as outdoor mobile coverage continues to improve. Additional aims of the TRAI in developing a property rating system include:
Standardising and promoting high-quality digital connectivity in residential, commercial and public properties;
Providing prospective tenants, owners and businesses with transparent measures of quality of a property’s digital connectivity; and
Encouraging coordination between property managers, retail service providers and network operators to implement connectivity standards.
The regulator states that its approach is a self-sustainable solution to drive network investment, including through greater competition in residential and commercial property markets based on digital connectivity.
The rating system would be carried out by third-party evaluators
The TRAI envisions that third party firms, referred to as Digital Connectivity Rating Agencies (DCRAs), will be primarily responsible for applying the criteria set out in the manual to assign scores to properties. Property managers are responsible for voluntarily registering their holdings with a DCRA and paying relevant fees directly to the DCRA in exchange for evaluation. According to the TRAI guidelines, evaluations would require a review of documentation (including buildings plans and retail service provider agreements), an onsite inspection of digital infrastructure, quality of service testing (including satisfaction surveying of property occupants) and a regulatory compliance check. Residential and most commercial properties would be evaluated on the same set of criteria, while high traffic commercial properties, including hospitals, airports, hotels, schools and stadiums along with roads and railways, would have a separate rating system. Ratings could range between one and five stars, based on the total points awarded by a DCRA during an evaluation, with the TRAI determining the validity period for each rating once the evaluation is complete. Property managers would be able to appeal ratings both to the DCRA that conducted the evaluation as well as the TRAI or request a re-rating should any changes be made in the available digital infrastructure that relate to the rating criteria.
Only 4G and 5G connectivity would score points for properties, with added bonuses for compatibility with future spectrum bands
For evaluations of mobile connectivity, properties would only receive points within the rating system for the availability of 4G (2 points) or 5G connectivity (4 points), and evaluation procedures require the verification of base stations serving the property. Properties can score additional points if they verify that mobile equipment installed currently is compatible with the future spectrum bands allocated for mobile or unlicensed use by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Properties would also be rated based on the number of mobile operators that achieve 85% indoor coverage with the latest generation of mobile technology, modelled using the signal strengths required by the TRAI in mobile coverage reporting by operators as well as tested directly onsite. Regarding quality of service, the TRAI specifies that 4G connectivity should achieve download minimum speeds of 10Mbps and 5G connections should be able to reach 100Mbps.
Property managers are banned from signing exclusive deals with service providers and gain points for competition within properties
Despite being motivated by poor indoor coverage, the TRAI’s proposed rating system also requires a comprehensive review of fixed infrastructure, including inspections of civil engineering and power infrastructure within properties and reviews of the fixed retail services available at properties. The regulator recommends a review of infrastructure for resilience features, including redundant power sources, such as battery back-up units, alternative pathways for cabling and anti-flooding provisions. The TRAI only considers full fibre connections within its scoring system, awarding points based on maximum possible speeds: 3 points for 1Gbps, 2 points for 500Mbps and 1 point for 100Mbps. Additional points can be awarded based on the proportion of units within a property that are connected to fibre as well as the proportion of rooms within a unit that are connected to fibre. Again, additional points are available based on the number of retail providers with active offers covering a property as well as for the availability of leased line connectivity for commercial properties. Beyond incentivising retail competition through its points system, the TRAI, in the regulation underpinning its evaluation manual, also prohibits property managers from entering into exclusive agreements with retail providers to extend services to any of their holdings. Similar efforts to address fibre connectivity in multi-dwelling units (MDUs) have occurred in other countries, though efforts to ban exclusive agreements between property owners and retail service providers were abandoned by the FCC in the US, and an amendment to allow tenants to bypass landlord approval in requesting a new fibre connection failed in the UK.
