Starting January 2016, telcos must pay users for call drops: Trai

The compensation will be limited to three dropped calls daily per user

Starting January 1, 2016, telecom services providers will have to compensate users for dropped calls, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said on Friday.

Users will be compensated Rs 1 for each call drop, limited to three dropped calls daily per user.

Compensation for postpaid subscribers will be adjusted against the next monthly bill. 

In addition, service providers will have to send detais of dropped calls to the subscriber within four hours of the event via SMS. 

The regulator said it would review the guidelines on call drops after six months. 

Besides, Trai has increased the penalty for operators for not meeting parameters pertaining to the quality of service to Rs 1 lakh (for first contravention), from Rs 50,000 for every quarter. For subsequent violations, the penalty has been increased to Rs 1.5-2 lakh for all parameters, including call drops, addressing consumer complaints and technical issues in the network.

Sources said there would be other aspects in the compensation policy, too. An official notification on the compensation, expected on Friday, will also prescribe criteria for measuring call drops. Earlier, Trai had floated a consultation paper on the issue. Al telecom companies had opposed compensation to users.

Currently, only Telenor India (formerly Uninor) compensates its users for call drops. The company has operations in six circles across India, with a user base of about 48 million.

The issue of call drops has gained in prominence through the past few months, with the government stepping in to address the situation. Trai has also been actively working to tackle the issue, holding frequent meetings with telecom operators.

Rajan Mathews, director-general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, expressed disappointment at the regulator's plan of compensating users for call drops. "Telecom players have been trying to address the issue of call drops but compensation is not the answer. It will be a hefty payout from telcos, already saddled with high debt. Of every rupee earned by telcos, 30 per cent goes to the government in the form of a levy or fee," he said. "Compensation won't resolve the issue of call drops."

On any legal action against Trai's compensation policy, he said, "We will wait for the final notification and then decide the next course of action."

Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, said, "Before the recommendations are implemented, the root cause of the call drop should be analysed - the lack of sufficient towers in the service area, the fact that the radiation norms are stringent than global norms and spectrum issues must be addressed."

In the consultation paper, Trai had proposed any call dropped within five seconds not be charged; and, for a call dropped after five seconds, the last pulse not be included for charging. It also proposed customers be provided talk-time credit for dropped calls.

Following a check in September, Trai has said it didn't find any significant improvement on the call drop front in Delhi and Mumbai. In Mumbai, no operator met the benchmark, while in Delhi, three - Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel -were found lagging in offering quality services, according to data released by Trai on Thursday.

The services offered by Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices had improved in Delhi, Trai said, adding the Aircel and Vodafone networks had deteriorated. Airtel's services have improved, though these still fell short of the set parameters.

In Mumbai, some improvement was seen in the case of Aircel, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices (GSM), while the services offered by Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance Communications (GSM) had worsened, Trai said.