Telcos up in arms against call drop penalty

More importantly, what’s the have to cap the compensation to exclusively three calls a day when the dropped calls have assumed rampant proportions and are a extreme headache? For instance, though the compensation has to be paid by the originating network, there’s a possibility that the call dropped because of a fault of the terminating network. Cellular Operators Association of India Director General Rajan S Mathews said.

“Therefore, we welcome it and we hope it will go a long way in addressing the concerns of consumers”. “So, that’s why we’re not for it”, he said.

A few brands have consulted lawyers, who think the new rule in unfair and will be stayed until a final court order on the matter. He however added that legal documents against the order are yet to be drafted, as also arguments against it.

New Delhi:Sectoral regulator TRAI made it mandatory for telecom operators to compensate consumers by one rupee for call drops with effect from January 1, 2016. He also said licence conditions do not mandate operators to provide 100 per cent coverage and also inside buildings. This is a hard issue for operators to address because there are several challenges when it comes to deploying equipment, such as gaining clearance; power supply problems; and damage to local fibre networks caused by other infrastructure projects. COAI is expected to meet Trai officials next week to discuss these issues. It said that if consumers walk into basements, a lift, interior areas of their house while talking, the chances of a call drop will be high, and asking the telco to pay compensation for such call drops was not fair.

The compensation would need to be paid to the calling customer who initiates such a voice call. For consumers, getting telecom companies to fall in line has not been easy.

The “call drop” hasbeen understood to be “a voice-call, which after being effectively proven, is disturbed ahead of its standard achievement (and) the reason for early termination is the circle of the service provider”.

According to Trai’s, even the audit drive conducted in Mumbai – no operator is meeting the benchmark while in Delhi – three top players Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel are found to be lagging in offering quality services. Under the new regulation, the operator will have to send a message to the customer within four hours of a dropped call with details of the amount credited to his or her account. Prepaid users will have their account credited, while contract customers will see their compensation on their next bill. “Moreover, despite the heavy operator investments on acquiring spectrum, insufficient tower infrastructure to cater to the ever rising demand is leading to poor quality of service and call drops”, Ernst & Young India Global Telecommunications Leader Prashant Singhal said. It has said it would watch the situation for six months, and then decide the next step.