Telcos to move apex court against call drops ruling

The telecom services industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Thursday said it has decided to file Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the regulation issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on call drops.

The step is taken against the ruling of the Delhi High Court in the matter on Monday, which had upheld the decision.

“COAI is requesting the Supreme Court to consider its prayer that the TRAI Regulation on call drops is ultra vires the TRAI Act, in that the Act does not give TRAI adjudicatory powers,” it said.

Hence, it said TRAI cannot grant compensation. Further, the TRAI regulation also goes against the Telegraph Act of 1885 under which mobile companies are licensed wherein 100 per cent coverage of the licensed geography is not required.

Therefore, call drops emanating from these areas should not be subject to compensation, it said. “We believe the TRAI regulation distracts the industry from focusing on the root causes of the problem which are lack of adequate spectrum and availability of cell tower locations,” the industry lobby said.

It said the telecom industry has already invested more than ₹50,000 crore towards infrastructure up-gradation and spectrum acquisition in 2014-15. There has been a substantial growth in network coverage and capacity with almost 70,000 additional cell sites being installed by the operators in the last six months to boost connectivity, it said. “Finally, COAI represents that it is impossible to identify all the reasons for call drops and hence implementation of TRAI order is not feasible,” it added.

On Tuesday, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that TRAI will enforce its order on call drops, which makes it mandatory for operators to compensate customers for failed calls, as the Delhi High Court had upheld the decision.

“Let’s be very clear about one thing. I have not examined the judgment but the penalty incentive and disincentive regulations of TRAI have been upheld by the court, so TRAI will enforce it,” Prasad had said.

Prasad had further said that call quality has been improving but operators need to further enhance the service quality.