TRAI proposes Re 1 compensation for call drop: Report

New Delhi, Oct 15: Telecom regulator TRAI is likely to soon come out with recommendations on compensating consumers for call drops.

According to sources, the regulator is likely to propose a compensation of Re 1 for each call drop and the recommendations may come as soon as tomorrow(Friday).

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman R S Sharma had earlier said that the proposals would be out by mid-October. TRAI today said there is no significant improvement in the call drop issue in Mumbai and Delhi as operators are lagging on various fronts in meeting the standards.

The regulator said that in Mumbai, no operator is meeting the benchmark while in Delhi three top players Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel are found to be lagging in offering good quality services. TRAI will come out with a quality of service paper in the next few days which will identify the reasons responsible for call drops.

TRAI is also considering making it mandatory for telecom operators to disclose their network capacities periodically, as the regulator feels that call drop problem needs to be examined in entirety.

The operators are though opposing any move for compensation on call drops while the consumers are strongly backing it. The operators said there are many things which are responsible for call drops and not all are under their control. They also said the cost to set up a mechanism for tracking call drops will be huge.

PTI