According to TRAI, telecom operators should credit subscribers one rupee for each dropped call, with a cap of Rs. 3 per day.
Telecom operators are not complying to TRAI’s directive to pay compensation for call drops. TRAI, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, earlier directed telecom operators to pay compensation for call drops beginning January 1. While TRAI is adamant that telecom operators should abide by its directive, the operators are not doing so, citing a Delhi High Court order from last month. The Delhi High Court directed TRAI not to take any powerful action against the telecom operators until the next court hearing, which is to be held on January 6, 2016.
The October 16th Mandate released by TRAI asks “every originating service provider providing Mobile Services for each call drop within its network”. The mandate also asks telecom operators to credit the calling consumer by one rupee for each call drop, which will be capped at three ruppes per day. Once a call drop occurs, operators have been directed to send a message through SMS/USSD to the calling consumer within four hours of the dropped call, with details of the amount credited to his/her account. For postpaid consumers, operators were asked to provide details of the credited money to the concerned subscriber in their next bill.
If this mandate comes into action, subscribers can get upto three rupees per day, but such an action may garner negative impacts on the telecom industry. According to ET’s report, analysts at Credit Suisse estimated that telecom industry might lose 3% of its revenue and 7-8% EBITDA on its operations, annually. According to TRAI, the compensation figure should not exceed Rs 800 crores annually. However, COAI (Cellular Operator Association of India) claims that if compensations are being handed out, people may ‘game’ the system. According to the operator association, if almost 50% of the Indian subscriber base games the system, the telecom industry might lose around Rs. 54,000 crores a year.
Looking at the bigger picture, industry analysts in tune with the telecom operators suggest that if compensations are made compulsory, it will send a negative impact among investors across the globe. It is also suggested that more than 5 lac crores would be required to build communication infrastructure in India, in the next 10 years. However, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government is backing TRAI on the compensation front.
We will know more in the coming days on whether and how would the compensations be played out. The Delhi High Court will be holding a session on the 6th of January on the same matter, which will lend more clarity to the situation.
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Hardik Singh
Light at the top, this odd looking creature lives under the heavy medication of video games. View Full Profile
