Telecom operators on Friday said they are dismayed by the “misplaced, baseless and misleading” remarks made against them by TRAI in the Supreme Court, and asked the authority to refrain from use of such unsubstantiated language.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for TRAI before the Supreme Court said a “cartel” of 4-5 telecom firms having a billion subscribers were making ₹250 crore a day but not making investments on their network to improve services to check call drops.
“They are making around ₹1-lakh crore a year from calls and the impact of penalty will be ₹270-280 crore and not thousands of crore as claimed by them,” he said.
Telecom players’ body COAI in a statement said, “The industry is deeply hurt by such strong remarks especially when it is a well-known and acknowledged fact that huge investments have been made by the operators which has yielded in connecting and empowering a billion people.” COAI said the industry has leveraged its financial ability and taken on debt to the tune of ₹3.8-lakh crore, to further invest a cumulative figure of over ₹8-lakh crore.