Telecom regulator TRAI has said that mobile operators will have to credit one rupee to a user's account for a call drop from January 1, 2016. It said users would be compensated for no more than three dropped calls a day.
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TRAI or Telecom Regulatory Authority of India also said that the service providers would have to send SMSes to customers on the amount credited within four hours of a call drop. Postpaid customers would see the credit reflected in their next bill.
A call drop means a voice call which after being successfully established, is interrupted before it is completed.
Operators are expected to oppose the move for compensation on call drops; harassed consumers are strongly backing it.
TRAI had said on Thursday that there is no significant improvement in the call drop issue in Mumbai and Delhi and that operators are lagging on various fronts in meeting the required standards.
Regretting the problem of call drops in India, Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao had said this week, "I am really sorry about the fact that there are (call) drops in India at the level where we would not like them to be. It's linked to amount of spectrum that we have, it's linked to the ease of getting permits, right of ways."
The Vodafone CEO however said that compensate users for call drops is a practice that is unheard of in other parts of the world.
In August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sought that the issue of call drops be fixed urgently as it directly impacts the common man. The Centre has been closely monitoring efforts since.
TRAI consulted stakeholders including mobile operators and consumer groups before making its recommendations on call drops.
The regulator has said that in Mumbai, no operator is meeting service quality benchmarks, while in Delhi three top players Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel have been wanting.
TRAI will also issue a paper on quality of service in the next few days, which will identify the reasons responsible for call drops.
