Compensate consumers by one rupee for call drops: TRAI to Telecom Companies

Telecom regulator TRAI on Friday came out with a regulation making it mandatory for every originating service provider providing Cellular Mobile Telephone Service to credit the account of the calling consumer by one rupee for each call drop within its network with effect from January 1, 2016.
The compensation will, however, be limited to three dropped calls in a day,as said by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Hence, even in case of multiple dropped calls, he may claim maximum of Rs 3 per day from his telecom provider.
Further, the compensation will be given only if the call drop takes place due to the calling party’s network and not because of the receiving operator’s network.
As per the new rules, the telecom operator needs to send a message to the customer within four hours of a dropped call with details of the amount credited to his or her account. For post-paid customers, the details of the credit would need to be provided in the next bill. The compensation would need to be paid to the calling customer who initiates such a voice call.
The telecom operators, however has criticized the this order saying that the “harsh” penalty will have a cost impact and could lead to “confrontation” with subscribers. telecom operators have threatened to challenge TRAI directive in appellate tribunal TDSAT.
Telecom stocks have witnessed selling pressure on Friday. Shares of Idea Cellular declined by 1.44 per cent to Rs 150.40, while Bharti Airtel was down 0.27 per cent to Rs 350.50 on BSE.
Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, welcomed the decision and appealed to all operators to address the issue. The minister also noted that “the regulator is the final authority (on tariff). Once this regulation has been framed, this becomes law of land and is binding all operators.”
TRAI said it will keep a close watch on the implementation of the mandate as well as the measures being initiated by service providers to minimise the problem of dropped calls and may undertake a review after six months.
For official Notification click: TCPR_9th_Amendment_2015 16.10