Complaints related to telecom services accounted for 20 per cent of all consumer grievances during the April-June period this fiscal, the maximum against any single sector, according to the National Consumer Helpline (NCH).

The NCH received 3,390 consumer complaints related to the telecom sector out of a total of 17,072 complaints in the first quarter this fiscal. Telecom-related grievances were followed by products (2,957), LPG (1,391), banking (1,241) and insurance (1,069) in terms of the number of complaints received on the helpline, it added.

In the telecom field, the maximum number of complaints were against Bharti airtel -- the country's biggest mobile operator -- with 774 consumers registering complaints with the NCH. Airtel was followed by Reliance Communications (541), Vodafone (477), BSNL (445), Tata Teleservices (271) and Idea Cellular (245), it said.

"While every complaint is a matter of concern to our members, please keep in mind we have 850 million subscribers and 3,390 complaints is an extremely low percentage compared to the total number of customers we serve on a daily basis," Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director General Rajan S Mathews told PTI.

He noted that the member operators work hard to ensure all their customers are satisfied. "Any customer complaint is taken seriously and all reasonable efforts are made to resolve the complaint in a timely fashion," he said.

In the 2010-11 fiscal, there were 12,238 complaints related to the telecom sector out of the total of 72,655. However, in that fiscal, it was only second in terms of the number of complaints received by the NCH, with the maximum number of grievances related to defective products (14,983).

NCH is a public service project of the Consumer Affairs Ministry run by Delhi University and has been functional since March, 2005. It helps consumers deal with problems related to defective products, deficiency in services and unfair trade practices.