Call drops: Consumers demand compensation, telcos oppose

A large number mobile phone users welcomed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI) proposal to compensate users for call drops, while telecom operators have opposed it.

The Trai had earlier this month floated a consultation paper seeking public comments on a proposal suggesting service providers should compensate mobile subscribers for call drops and poor quality of services.

Urging the regulator to protect their interest, hundreds of individuals commenting through MyGov portal said they should get double the cost for each lost call.

“Calls if dropped should not be charged because many times our villagers make calls and it would get dropped due to a lack of connectivity...they pay money without talking. It is harassment,” a consumer commented on the proposal.

Many others complained about the absence of mobile towers around their villages. There are hundreds of comments from people seeking compensation for failure in mobile Internet connection as well.

However, telecom operators, industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telcom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) have opposed the proposal to compensate consumers.

COAI, which represents pure play GSM mobile companies like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Uninor etc, said: “We are of the view that consumer compensation will not resolve the problem of the call drops, since the key factors resulting in the call drops such as non-availability of sites and spectrum constraints will still remain.”

“We do not agree that calling consumers should not be charged for a call that got dropped within five second or any time later. The subscriber should be charged for the duration of the call session,” AUSPI Secretary General Ashok Sud said.  AUSPI represents mainly CDMA players like Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and Sistema Shyam Teleservices.