Additional solicitor- general (ASG) P.S. Narasimha, appearing for Trai, said the order was taken after consumers started complaining about frequent call drops.
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In defense of its decision to penalise telecom operators for call drops, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in a detailed affidavit mentioned that call drops are a problem “pervasive across the country” affecting the public at large and different sections of consumer groups have been complaining to the Authority.
TRAI implemented the call drop compensation from January 1, 2016 under which telcos are to compensate the consumer Re 1 per call upto 3 dropped calls per day.
On Thursday, the court did not pass any interim order saying if service providers begin compensating consumers for call drops as per the new TRAI regulations, it won’t be possible to recover them if the rule was set aside in future.
TRAI soon filed an affidavit in the Delhi High Court challenging the same which stated, “However, they can not be permitted to ignore the quality of service of voice calls, which continues to be the primary service for the telecom consumers”.
On the other hand, telecom companies claimed that the telecom regulator sidelined all suggestions made by the companies before bringing in the call drops compensation regulations.
It has also said, “the surge in data consumption has led to an increase in the share of data revenue in the overall subscriber revenue of the telecom service providers (TSPs)”. The matter is now posted for further hearing on January 11.
He said all the telecom majors want to reduce call drops and were working towards that in a phased manner. “Hence, the necessity and importance of the impugned regulation – which is not only reasonable but has a clear and rational linkage with the object sought to be achieved i.e. reducing call drops”, it said in its reply to the petitions filed by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) and 21 telecom operators. The telecommunication company investments in the infrastructure in the segment of wireless access service increased from Rs, 2,02,399 crore in 2012-2013 financial year to Rs.2,11,691 crore in a 2013-2014 financial year, a rise of only 4.6%.
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“Mobile companies are continuing to charge for dropped calls even when calls are not complete and service is not given, but TRAI failed to take action against them as per law”.
