Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) not to make compensation to customers for call drops a mandatory requirement for operators. This comes after TRAI floated a consultation paper titled ?compensation to consumers in the event of dropped calls?.
According to TRAI?s consultation paper, the mobile users should not be charged for calls that get dropped within five seconds. The paper has also called for stakeholders views on the compensation mechanism for call drops, in form of credit of talk-time in minutes/seconds or credit of talk-time in monetary terms.
COAI is of the view that internationally, the operators that have adopted such compensation measures have based it on their own business models. However, there are several technical and reconciliation issues involved in the process. Meanwhile, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) has stated that telecom operators should not have to compensate consumers for call drops which are caused by factors beyond their control, such as sealing of towers due to radiation concerns of citizens and restrictions on tower erection by municipalities and local bodies.
