No coercive steps over call drops till January 6: TRAI to HC

The Delhi High Court was on Tuesday informed by the TRAI that no coercive steps would be taken against telecom companies till January 6 in connection with call drop compensation norms.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) told the division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath that it would not take any coercive steps against telecom companies till January 6, the next date of hearing. However, it said the policy would come into force from January 1 as was decided.

The court was hearing a plea of telecom operators for a stay on TRAI's compensation policy for call drops, under which a rupee will be credited to the mobile users' account for every call drop (restricted to three per day) starting January 2016.

Companies termed the order of TRAI as contradictory and destructive and sought quashing of the October 16 order mandating services provider to pay subscribers Re.1 per call drop experienced on their network, subject to a cap of three a day.

They said the TRAI does not have the power to grant compensation to end-subscribers under the TRAI Act and the decision to grant compensation is "without authority of law, without jurisdiction and is illegal".

The companies said the penalty was being levied without considering the infrastructure problems faced by the companies.