Call drops: Trai seeks power to imprison, fine violators

Seeking more teeth to check call drops, the regulator Trai has asked government to amend law to allow it to impose penalty of up to Rs 10 crore on mobile operators and jail term of up to two years on their executives for any violation of regulatory framework.

This follows a Supreme Court judgment quashing the Trai order that asked telecom operators to compensate subscribers for call drops.

The regulator has suggested to the Department of Telecom (DoT) amendments in various provisions in the Trai Act, 1997, with a view to be an “effective sector regulator”. “...if a service provider violates any direction, order or regulations made under this Act or terms and condition of licence, service provider to be liable for penalty which may extend to 10 crore rupees,” Trai said in its communication to the DoT.

Trai had put in place a new set of rules mandating telecom operators to pay Re 1 for each dropped call, subject to maximum Rs 3 per day, but the order was quashed by the apex court after companies appealed against it. The regulator said that after a detailed examination of the judgment it has concluded the need for seeking greater clarity in protecting interest of consumers, grievance redressal and enforcement of its regulations and orders.

“In order to be an effective sector regulator Trai needs to be statutorily empowered to enforce its direction, orders, regulations as well as terms and conditions of licence issued to service providers through imposition of penalties for contravention of such regulations directions etc,” Trai said.