The TRAI open house session scheduled to be held here on Tuesday would discuss key issues such as eligibility conditions of consumer organisations for interaction with TRAI, mode of sharing data with the agencies, and interaction with consumers on a national level, the regulator said in its latest consultation paper.

"Consumers are the largest stakeholders in the telecom sector. As liberalisation of telecom sector continues, the interaction between consumers and regulator would assume an even greater significance for regulatory policy and monitoring of quality of service," it said.Besides registration of the consumer organisations, the regulator would also take up the issues related to structuring of such organisations and various modes of interaction with them. There are at present 12 consumer organisations and four NGO that are registered. Under the present practice of registration of telecom consumer organisations and NGOs, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) which is responsible for accepting, examining and forwarding applications for registration to the ministry of consumer affairs, does so without written terms and guidelines.

"Voluntary consumer organisations or societies are normally registered under either Companies Act, or Societies Registration Act. Formally there are no specifications or norms laid down for the process of registration of such agencies with ministry of consumer affairs, BIS and directorate of consumer affairs," TRAI said.

The regulator has suggested registration of these agencies with the department of company affairs or registrar of society under Companies Act 1956 or Societies Registration Act, 1860.

"The rules and regulations or by-laws for the organisation shall include an objective representing the cause of telecom users. The organisations fulfilling the criteria may be considered for registration of TRAI," it said. Other issues being addressed include whether TRAI should interact with individual consumer organisations or the organisations themselves may form their confederation at national or state level and TRAI may interact with this confederation.