TRAI asks telcos to compensate consumers by Rs 1 for call drop

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indian TRAI on Friday made it mandatory for telecom operators to compensate consumers by one rupee for call drops with effect from first January 2016.

The compensation will, however, be limited to three dropped calls in a day.

A statement issued by the Telecom Authority today said the telecom operators should send a message through SMS or USSD to the calling customer within four hours of the occurrence of call drop and the details of amount credited in his account. It also said for post paid customers, the details of the credit should be provided in the next bill.

The regulator said it will 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 may undertake a review after six months.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said recently that call drop issue is starting to improve. The Minister named telecom operators like Airtel, Aircel, Idea, Vodafone and Tata Tele among those having contained the problem and said nearly half of the defective mobile sites have been fixed to address the menace.

The regulator had in June and July conducted drive tests in Mumbai and Delhi, which showed unsatisfactory network quality. TRAI than convened a meeting of all telecom operators to improve quality of network.