GSM and CDMA lobby groups, COAI and AUSPI, have said that Trai’s compensation order on call drops would be a setback for government’s Digital India initiative and would also affect investment into the sector. In a joint letter to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, they requested government’s intervention in the matter as the telcos are likely to lose about Rs 54,000 crore a year following Trai’s order.
The telcos are of the view that such a revenue loss will influence the government’s Digital India program.
Ashok Sud, Secretary-General of AUSPI, was quoted as saying to ET that "In case our plea is not accepted, then we will have to take the call on whether to go court on the matter."
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has mandated all telecom operators to compensate customers with Re 1 per dropped call with a cap of three calls a day, with effect from January 1. The sectoral regulator also indicated that the operators can fix the problem of call drops as it is technically feasible from their side.
Also read: Compensation regulation for call drops is here to stay, says Indian telecom regulator
"The licence conditions require operators to cover a minimum of 90% of a service area, but going by this order we will be penalised for coverage problems even in the remaining 10%," Sud said.
"Secondly, the quality of service parameters of the regulator also permit a call drop rate of under 2%, and globally it is a well-accepted fact that call drops do occur. This order will again go against the same quality of service parameter," he said.
