CHENNAI: In a setback to mobile users, the Supreme Court on Wednesday, struck down TRAI's call drop compensation proposal. It may be noted that last year, the sector watchdog had asked telcos like Vodafone, Airtel, and Reliance Communications to incentivize consumers amid concerns over growing call drops across the country. Opposing the move, telecos moved the court, which on Wednesday ruled that operators can't be penalised. Here's a quick recap of the issue.
What's a call drop?
It is defined as "a voice call, which after being successfully established, is interrupted prior to its normal completion (and) the cause of early termination is within the network of the service provider.
Why did Trai crack the whip on telecos?
Trai's drive test in two cities Delhi and Mumbai revealed startling call drop rates of17.29% in Delhi and 5.56% in Mumbai as against its benchmark of <=2%.
Only one operator (both in Delhi and Mumbai) of the six reviewed was within the prescribed <=2%.
What did TRAI find?
That Consumers were charged on a per-minute-pulse. It means, even if the call drops in first few seconds, it attracts per minute charge as opposed to per-second pulse rate. Trai believes call drops fetch more revenue to telecos as consumers make a second or third call to continue the conversation. It underscored the need to upgrade infrastructure; India has 425,000 base transmitting stations against the requirement of 625,000.
What did telecos say?
Spectrum crunch, resistance from resident welfare associations against installation of mobile towers that could improve service quality as reasons for rising call drops.
Why calls drop?
Technical and non-technical issues. Primary among the technical reasons include lack of radio coverage, radio interference between neighbouring cells, imperfections in the functioning of the network, capacity constraints and overload, transmission media related problems and unauthorized repeaters.
Non-technical issues could be low battery, low funds in pre-paid connections. Even if you are miffed with your partner and disconnect the call, it's considered a call drop.
What was TRAI's diktat?
It had mandated telcos to compensate users from January, 1 at the rate of Rs 1 per dropped call, with a ceiling of three dropped calls per day (or Rs 3 per day).
As per Trai's proposal, the operator will have to send a message to the customer within four hours of a dropped call with details of the amount credited to his or her account. For post-paid customers, the details of the credit will have to be provided in the next bill.
Why telcos opposed?
Service providers argued that the compensation leaves room for customers to manipulate and collect maximum compensation of Rs 3 per day from operators. They argued that scope for manipulation was high as determining the actual cause for a call drop wasn't fool proof. So, in cases like battery going down and near-zero balance in pre-paid accounts can result in call drops and the terminating network may be at fault, they said.
Voice your thoughts:
-- Should you be charged if calls drop?
-- Should you be compensated when calls drop?
-- Should you be credited with talk-time if calls drop?