Telcos plan to challenge Trai's compensation policy in court

Say it will be a hefty payout and, in many cases, it is not technically feasible to monitor call drops

Telecom operators are planning to move higher courts over the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai’s) recommendation that mobile users must be given Re 1 in compensation for every call drop with effect from January 1, 2016.

According to sources, telcos are examining the views of Trai, made public on Friday, and a legal option is not ruled out. “It will be a hefty payout and, in many cases, it is not technically feasible to monitor call drops.”

A final decision is expected to be taken in a day or two, say people in the know. The compensation will, however, be limited to three dropped calls in a day, Trai said on Friday. 

Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, had said on Thursday: “Before the recommendations are implemented, the root cause of call drops should be analysed — these are due to lack of sufficient towers in service areas; the fact is that the radiation norms here are more stringent than global rules and the spectrum issues need to be addressed.”

According to Trai, a telecom player should send a message through SMS or USSD to the calling customer within four hours of the occurrence of a call drop giving out details of amount credited in his account. 

For post-paid customers, the details of the credit should be provided in the next bill. This would to some extent provide relief to customers from the menace of call drops and spur service providers to improve quality of service, Trai said.

However, Trai also said it would keep a close watch on the implementation of the mandate, as well as the measures being initiated by service providers to minimise the problem of dropped calls, and might undertake a review after six months.