In the past one year, an increasing number of consumers have raised the issue of call drops, complaining that their experience of making voice calls has deteriorated, TRAI said.
India's telecom regulator has suggested that cellphone carriers should compensate customers for call drops and poor service quality amid an alarming rate of service failures that even has Prime Minister Narendra Modi vexed.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI today floated a consultation paper seeking public view on the proposal. The last date for submitting comments on the paper is September 28.
A report by the regulator has found that the call drop problem during peak hours in the last one year has almost doubled. With more than 2 per cent of calls failing, all but one telecom company failed to meet the benchmark in June-July this year. In Delhi, dropped calls were as high as 17 per cent.
At present, TRAI levies a penalty on telecom operators for failing to meet service quality benchmarks.
The watchdog said while usage over the last two financial years went up by 6.3 percent, spending network infrastructure by companies only grew 4.6 per cent.
TRAI is considering making it mandatory for telecom service providers to make periodic disclosures about their network capacities and steps taken to optimise networks.
The regulator proposed that any call which gets dropped within five seconds would not be charged, and in case a call gets dropped any time after five seconds, the last pulse of the call should not be included for the purpose of charging.
TRAI has come out with the paper just over a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concerns on call drop problem being faced by consumers across the country.
In the past one year, an increasing number of consumers have raised the issue of call drops, complaining that their experience of making voice calls has deteriorated, TRAI said.
To file comments on the issue, the regulator has invited comments at the following channels:
Vinod Kotwal, Advisor, TRAI
Mahanagar Door Sanchar Bhawan, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg.
New Delhi - 110002
Email: advisorfea1@trai.gov.in
Phone: +91-11-23230752
Fax: +91-11-23236650