TRAI orders operators to Compensate Customers for Call drop

Your nagging call drops may soon fetch you a Re 1 compensation with telecom regulator Trai proposing a penalty in lieu of deficient services.

TV Ramachandran of Assocham too says there are multiple causes that are resulting in call drops, not limited to just operators.

For subsequent non-compliance on the same parameter consecutively in two or more quarters, the penalty will be higher at Rs 1.5 lakh, and still higher at Rs 2 lakh for each consecutive contravention, the sector regulator said in a statement.

The TRAI is expected to announce the calculations of such dropped calls tomorrow.

Consumers will start getting the benefit soon after the TRAI notification. The telcos have been complaining that they are unable to put up the necessary number of towers due to radiation fears, the high-handedness of municipal bodies as well as the lack of spectrum-the key resource needed to offer mobile phone services in the country. It is compounded by the fact that state governments and local authorities impose restrictions on establishing mobile towers. Also, according to him, after bidding so aggressively for spectrum (over Rs 1000 crore), the entire argument that telecom companies are not or will not invest in towers and infrastructure, which will ultimately bring in revenues, does not ring right.

The regulator found that only Tata Teleservices in Delhi and Airtel in Mumbai are offering voice quality as per set standard.

“In Mumbai none of the operators are meeting the prescribed benchmark, there is marginal improvement in a few of the operators, while in Delhi a few of the operators have improved the benchmark and three operators are still not meeting the benchmark”, it said.

A fresh audit of the call drop situation in Delhi and Mumbai, released by Trai today, re-emphasised that the situation was pretty bad.

“The Authority feels that these measures will act as a sufficient deterrent against prolonged non-compliance and will further improve the quality of service in a time-bound manner”, the regulator said.

Analysts said that the new norms won’t address the issue properly.

Earlier, Communication and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had told journalists that the TRAI had been directed to penalise any operator encouraging call drop.

PTI contributed to the story.