Telcos may appeal against call drop fine move

Even as cell phone users rejoice over news of compensation for call drops, telecom operators are examining the TRAI decision to appeal against it or seek clarifications.

As reported by BusinessLine on Friday, mobile users will be compensated for call drops from January. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday notified an amendment to the consumer protection regulation that will mandate paying compensation to the consumers. According to the amendment, consumers will get ₹1 for every call drop suffered.

But in a day, a consumer will be compensated only for three call drops. This regulation might cost the operators around ₹150 crore a day. The TRAI decision saw stocks of major telecom companies such as Airtel and Idea taking a hit at the day’s opening, but they recovered subsequently.

Provisions ignored “There are various provisions which the regulator has ignored. If there is a problem in the network of the subscriber to whom the call is being made, then why should the company from whose network the call has originated be penalised?” asked Rajan S Mathews, Director-General, Cellular Operators Association of India.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “We welcome it ... I hope the issue of call drops will become a thing of the past at the earliest,” he said. According to the amendment, the operator will have to send a message to the customer within four hours of a call drop, with details of the amount credited to his/her account.

For post-paid customers, the details will have to be provided in the next bill. The compensation will need to be paid to the customer who has made the voice call and not the receiver, it said.