Will take action for call drops to protect consumer interest: Trai to Supreme Court

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it will take action against the Telcos for call drops to protect the interest of consumers as these service providers are not willing to compensate them. "We need to ensure quality of service. We need to protect the interest of consumers. They (Telcos) don't want to invest.

They don't want to compensate the consumers for call drop then what should be do. We have to take action," Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said.

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Rohatgi, appearing for Trai, before a bench of justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman, said that consumers needs to given some solace and the penalty imposed on the Telcos are "just the measure to make them pull up their boot straps".

"Its not a penalty. Its just a measure to make them pull their boot straps. Consumer is ultimate master and he needs to be given some solace for the call drops which is pan India phenomenon," he said.

The bench after conclusion of the Trai's argument asked the telecom operators to make any rejoinder arguments if any and posted the matter for further hearing on May 3.

The regulatory body had on Tuesday told the apex court that it has to safeguard 100 crore telecom subscribers and if companies agree to compensate call drops with equal number of free calls to consumers without pre-conditions then it is open to re-consider its direction imposing penalty on them.

It had said that the telecom companies never agree to any of the arrangements suggested to them by the regulator for compensating the consumers.

COAI, a body of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators, including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Reliance, have challenged the Delhi High Court order upholding TRAI's decision making it mandatory for them to compensate subscribers for call drops from this January.

TRAI has earlier told the apex court that a "cartel" of 4-5 telecom firms having a billion subscribers are making Rs 250 crore a day but not making investments on their network to improve services to check call drops.

The Delhi High Court had early this year upheld the October 16, 2015 decision of TRAI, making it mandatory for cellular operators to pay consumers one rupee per call drop experienced on their networks, subject to a cap of Rs 3 a day.