TRAI battles telcos over call drops

After jostling with differential pricing, the country’s telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) continues to fight telecom companies (telcos) over the issue of call drops and the compensation rule it imposed on them

After jostling with differential pricing, the country’s telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) continues to fight telecom companies (telcos) over the issue of call drops and the compensation rule it imposed on them (Pixabay)

After jostling with differential pricing, the country's telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) continues to fight telecom companies (telcos) over the issue of call drops and the compensation rule it imposed on them.

According to a TOI report , the watchdog in an affidavit filed in the Delhi High Court said that call drops are a pervasive problem across the country. "The issue of call drop is affecting the public at large and different sections of consumer groups have been complaining to the Authority , and (the issue) has also been pointed out by the Hon'ble Prime Minister."

It further went on to say that the compensation rule takes care "not to make the originating service provider pay for a call drop (that occurs) for reasons not attributable to the network of the originating service provider.The technology available in the network makes it possible to clearly identify the reasons for call drops."

In addition, the watchdog slammed telcos for not investing in network improvement despite making profits."The consumer should not be deprived of quality of service by the failure of the service provider to upgrade their network," TRAI said adding that the issue of call drop is not on account of the difficulties being faced by the service providers for installing mobile towers in as much as this problem of call drop is found even in those circles wherein there is no issue relating to installation of mobile towers.

The court is slated to take up the case on Thursday.