Idea, Airtel shares down on TRAI action against call drops

Shares of Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel fell by up to 1.5 per cent today after sectoral regulator TRAI made it mandatory for telecom operators to provide one rupee compensation to consumers for every call drop, effective January 1, 2016.
Idea Cellular was down 1.44 per cent to settle at Rs 150.40 on BSE. During the day, it slipped 3.24 per cent to Rs 147.65.
Shares of Bharti Airtel went down by 0.27 per cent to end at Rs 350.50. Intra-day, it fell by 2.98 per cent to Rs 340.95.
The compensation will, however, be limited to three dropped calls in a day, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement today.

As per the new rule, the telecom operator will have to send a message through SMS or USSD message to the customer who made the call within four hours of a call drop and details of the amount credited to his account.
Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) estimated that the regulation may force the industry to shell out about Rs 150 crore every day even if half of the consumer base in the country faces this problem.