NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India plans to impose up to Rs 10 lakh ‘financial disincentive’ on operators who fail to address the menace of call drops. Under the law, Trai cannot explicitly levy any penalty; hence the phrase ‘financial disincentive’.
Experts, however, see it as a wasted exercise in the absence of any authority by Trai and inability of the operators to get clearances from local bodies to set up towers. “We have proposed financial disincentive in the range of Rs 1-5 lakh. It is a graded penalty system depending on the performance of a network,” Trai Chairman R S Sharma said.
Later, Trai secretary (acting) S K Gupta said if an operator fails to meet call drop benchmark in consecutive quarter, the penalty amount will be increased 1.5 times and in the third consecutive month, it will doubled. “There is a cap of Rs 10 lakh on financial disincentive,” he said. Under the previous Quality of Service Rule, penalty on call drop was Rs 50,000 per violation.
“The news system adds more complexities and makes difficult to measure. We urge the regulator help us resolve the issue as the government has done. It is an issue where we will approach the regulator and find a resolution,” said Rajan Mathews, director-general, Cellular Operators Association of India. Under the revised rule, not more than two per cent of the calls handled by the operators should drop.
Trai’s new rules
If a telecom operator fails to meet call drop benchmark in the consecutive quarter, the penalty amount will be increased 1.5 times and in the third consecutive month, it will doubled. However, there is a cap of Rs 10 lakh on the disincentive.