Despite strong objections and oppositions of the telecom companies, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will not reconsider its recent regulation on call drop compensation.

TRAI chairman R S Sharma said here on Thursday on the sidelines of an event, "The opposition is obvious and understandable. But we have taken the decision after consultations with all stakeholders."

As per regulation a consumer can get Rs 1 as compensation per call drop for maximum three call drops a day. He also said that TRAI would test the networks of the telecom companies in this month to ascertain whether their claim of improvement of network and service was genuine.

He explained that from Jan 1, 2016, this compensation would have to be given to a consumer by an operator if only the call drop takes place in originating network, so as to avoid the complications of the inter network transfer.

“Significant cases of the call drops are due to the non-optimisations of the network points, DTS and other issues. … If they optimise and better maintain it, things can improve”, he added. TRAI has also shared a diagnostic and technical study on call-drops with the operators, he said. 

BharatNet

TRAI will submit its recommendations to the Union Government on private participation in the Centre’s proposed network building project BharatNet. This project will entail an investment of Rs 109 lakh crore to connect all village panchayats with high-speed broadband.

TRAI Chairman said, "We have already floated a consultation paper (for all stakeholders) to explore the possibility of private participation in network-building in the BharatNet. We will submit our recommendations to the department of telecommunications this month."

The Centre has come out with the BharatNet plan after the failure of National Optical Fibre Network owing to “structural problems”.

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