New Delhi: Telecom operators have opposed telecom regulator Trai's proposal to compensate users for call drops even as a large number of consumers have backed it.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (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.
This proposal of Trai has so far seen hundreds of individuals commenting through MyGov portal to protect their interest.
Citing the losses incurred to them due to call drops, people demanded that they should get double the cost for each lost call.
"Calls if dropped should not be charged because many times our villagers make call and it get dropped due to a lack of connectivity... they pay money without talking. It comes out to be a harassment," a consumer commented on the proposal.
Many others complaint about absence of mobile towers around their villages. There are hundreds of comments from people seeking compensation for failure in mobile internet connection as well along with call drops.
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.
"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.
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 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."
The GSM body, COAI, said that if quality network is not available to make a call, it will also not be available even to use the free minute if provided as compensation.
Uninor, participated as Telenor (India), claims to compensate customer for call drops but in its response to Trai the company opposed the rule mandating compensation.
COAI said that call drop is not a pan India phenomenon but is restricted to select areas like Delhi, Mumbai, Patna where mobile towers are not installed due to lack of permissions.
"We believe that the issue of call drop does not require a tariff intervention but requires a concerted and continuous support from the regulator, licensor and both central and state governments for resolution of issues faced by operators," telecom major Bharti Airtel said.
Airtel said that it has invested to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore in last 5 years which includes installation of more than 24,000 sites in last 1 year and 1,000 small cells in last few months.
"As an estimate, during the recent past, we have been unable to acquire 3,500 sites on a pan India basis, on account of emission concerns and arbitrary tower policy, which has impacted the quality of service in key cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Patna," Airtel said.
It added that apart from these sites, around 2,300 mobile sites of the company has been shut down and sealed, impacting services.
State-run BSNL and MTNL cited technical reasons due to which they cannot compensate for call drops.
"As call drop information is not part of the charging systems therefore, the calls of duration of 5 sec or less not to be charged or making the last pulse free is not technically feasible. Therefore, we do not agree that the calling customers should not be charged for the call that got dropped within 5 seconds or more," MTNL said.
BSNL said sometimes call drops happen due to subscriber moving into basement or tunnel where mobile frequency is inadequate or their phone battery going off.
However, Gujarat-based Consumer Protection Group said that consumers pay for a good quality of service and telcos get paid for delivering good services.
"If the service has not been provided or not been completely provided, the promise of service has been broken and hence the service provider should not be paid for the broken promise. Japanese train service refunds the cost of ticket if the train is even one minute late," the group said.
It mentioned that Uninor and Reliance are compensating consumers with free minutes and earlier Bharti Airtel has taken similar initiative in Andhra Pradesh.
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