TRAI Makes it Mandatory for Telecom Companies to Compensate for Call Drops
There is someone out there who feels that people have suffered long enough from dropped calls. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today made it mandatory for telecom companies to compensate consumers for call drops. Customers will now be compensated by 1 rupee for every call drop with a limit of three dropped calls a days.
This new ruling will be made effective from January 1, 2016. Telecom operators will have to send a message through SMS or USSD to its calling customer giving details of the amount credited in his/her account within four hours of a dropped call. The detail of the credit should be provided in the bill for post-paid customers.
TRAI said that this mandate will give some relief to consumers who have been troubled by call drops. At the same time, this new rule will cause service providers to improve their quality of service. TRAI also said that it will make sure service providers are compensating consumers properly and will undertake a review after six months.
Accroding to some reports, telecos are not at all pleased with this decision and are looking in to this matter with a possibility of taking TRAI to court. Individual service providers are complaining of serious financial hit with this move. “It will be a hefty payout and, in many cases, it is not technically feasible to monitor call drops.”
A final decision is expected to be taken in a day or two.
