From January, call drops can dial up to Rs 3 per day for you

Regulation could cost telcos as much as Rs 150 cr every day

The country's telecom regulator on Friday asked companies to pay a compensation of Rs 1 for up to three call drops per user per day. The move has disappointed the telecom industry and operators are believed to be exploring a legal action.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director General Rajan S Mathews said the regulation could force telcos to shell out as much as Rs 150 crore every day, even if half of the mobile subscribers face call drops and that needs to be compensated.

TRAI’S COMPENSATION RULES

• Credit the calling consumer by one rupee for a call drop. Such credit limited to three dropped calls a day
• Message calling consumer within four hours of the call drop and the details of amount credited to his account
• For post-paid consumers, give details of the credited amount in the next bill

 

"We are disappointed. This will not resolve the issue of call drops. It will force us (operators) to have an adversial relation with customers. And, as per licence conditions, we are not mandated to provide 100 per cent coverage area," Mathews said.

Asked if the operators were likely to challenge the matter in higher courts, Mathews said, "We will first initiate a meeting with Trai and try to reason out by putting forth our views. If the issues are not resolved, we will contemplate a legal action."

However, minister for communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad welcomed the move. "We hope this would go a long way in addressing the concerns of consumers. I appeal again to all operators to address the issue seriously.

I hope the issue of call drops will become a thing of the past at the earliest, so that the penalty provision need not be invoked," Prasad said.

"As far as the tariff is concerned, under the Trai Act, the regulator has the final authority. Once this regulation has been framed, this would become the law of land, binding on operators and the government."

Under the Trai regulation, operators would have to send a message to the customer within four hours of a dropped call, with details of the amount credited to her account. For post-paid customers, the details should be provided in the next bill.

According to Trai, call drop is a voice call, which after being successfully established, is interrupted prior to its normal completion (and) the cause of early termination is within the network of the service provider. The compensation would have to be paid to the customer who initiates a voice call. Amendments have been made by Trai to its telecom consumers protection regulations to provide for the compensation.

Mathews also claimed many issues had been ignored in framing the compensation rules. "If there is a problem in the network of the subscriber to whom the call is being made, then the company from whose network the call has originated cannot be penalised."