The ongoing discussion to address the issues of call-drops might take a little more time as the telecom companies have sought more time from TRAI. In a statement yesterday, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) stated that the telecom companies have come up with an explanation and have asked for more time to implement the new stricter rules suggested by TRAI. TRAI Chairman RS Sharma assured that the telecom companies have not opposed the new rules, however, implementing them on the strict deadline has come up to be an issue for them.
TRAI had issued new orders on August 18th, in which, the regulatory authority had suggested putting a fine of up to INR 10 lakh per circle on the telecom operator. Along with that, it had also suggested monitoring the performance of call drops on a base-station level, which was done on a circle level before. Initially, according to the TRAI orders, the rules were to be implemented from October 1st, however, now it seems to get delayed by at least a few weeks. With these orders, TRAI was also looking to ensure proper service in the under-served areas.
According to the new rules, telecom companies are bound to pay INR 1-5 lakh as penalty for failing to maintain the suggested call quality in a particular circle in a quarter. The penalty will depend on the level of violation by the telecom operator. If the same continues for the next quarter, the penalty will be increased by up to 1.5 times. The maximum cap on the penalty is decided to be INR 10 lakhs in the third quarter.
In its statement, TRAI stated that starting of base-station level monitoring will turn out to be a great step in the long run and also, it will help the authority to access the ground level report. In the earlier days, the performance was measured on circle level and lesser call qualities on 1-2 base stations did not impact the final report of a circle, which made a lot of people complain, even though telecom companies submitted proper reports.
According to the TRAI orders, the new rules will get implemented starting 1st October and since the start of new year, the penalty structure will kick-in. It also added that the customers will be asked for their feedbacks starting October 1st, in order to give the companies a chance to address the issues before the penalty comes into the picture.
TRAI has launched an app for the smartphones where users can submit their feedback about the call quality. Along with that, the authority is planning to collect information through push messages from the users who do not use a smartphone yet.
In their response, telecom companies have argued that the operator is not solely responsible for call drops and some other factors, including the number of users on the network, their location (indoors or outdoors) and handset issues should also be taken into consideration.