Call drops: SC to continue hearing on March 15

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Former telecom minister and senior counsel Kapil Sibal on Thursday told the Supreme court that TRAI is showing zero tolerance by penalising every dropped call. The SC will resume hearing on this issue on March 15.

The apex court has asked telcos to file affidavit stating if they were penalised for QoS regulation. To this the telcos said, "never exceeded 2% call drop regulation".

Appearing before the Supreme Court to challenge a Delhi High Court that asked telecom companies to pay compensation to mobile users for call drops, Sibal said, “There is no system in world where there is zero call drop. Upto 2 percent call drop is acceptable under TRAI regulator”.

SC is hearing the plea of telecom companies challenging High Court order over compensation for call drops.

The telecom service providers on March 7 requested the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) not to enforce its order on call drops compensation from Monday, as the matter will be heard by the apex court today (March 10).

Meanwhile, the telecom regulator yesterday extended the date of submission of call drops compensation compliance report for the service providers to March 14, according to industry sources.

The Supreme Court on March 4 refused to pass any interim order on compensations for call drop as it will hold a hearing on March 10 on a plea by the associations of telecom operators challenging the regulator`s decision.

The COAI and the AUSPI had earlier challenged the TRAI`s October 16, 2015, decision making it mandatory for telecom companies to compensate subscribers from January 1, 2016.

With Agency Inputs