Telcos Threaten Tariffs Hikes if Forced to Pay Call Drop Compensation

Spacescreamer

Spacescreamer

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Upping the ante against Trai's regulation on call drops, telecom operators Tuesday warned that mobile tariff will go up if they are forced to pay compensation for dropped calls.

The operators have also asserted that it is not possible to make a network free from call drops.

Trai has mandated operators to compensate consumers from January 1 if they face call drop problem. However, the regulation limits compensation to only three call drops in a day which means maximum compensation can be of Rs. 3 in a day to a consumer.

In a joint letter to Trai, telecom industry bodies COAI and AUSPI have said that the scheme of compensation, far from reducing call drops, will result in a sharp increase in call drops as countless customers will cause the calls to drop to obtain Rs. 3 per day as compensation.

"To recover this cost of compensation, telecom operators will have to increase tariffs leading to customer spending more to purchase telecom services," the letter said.

The two industry bodies, which represent all the operators in the country, said that the regulation is an invitation for limitless misuse and gaming of the system that as per estimates will lead to a 3 percent hit on revenues and 7-8 percent hit on mobile EBITDA.

"The market is already agog with talk that all a consumer has to do is to engineer three call drops every day, and get Rs. 90 reduction in the monthly bill. In a country where the average ARPU is Rs. 125, the impact of such a regulation is frightening," the industry bodies said.

GSM telecom players body COAI had earlier said that the regulation may force the industry to shell out about Rs. 150 crores every day even if half of the consumer base in the country faces call drop problem.

The operators also said that it was not possible to make a network free from call drops.

"Wireless networks cannot be designed for zero call drops ... Therefore, in a cellular mobile radio network, having full coverage and capacity everywhere is an oxymoron. The Regulation on compensation assumes ideal conditions with a possibility of zero call drop, which is impossible to achieve," the letter said.
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First the BS when Whatsapp introduced calling feature.. now the same act of holding the gun to the already toothless TRAI's head when a legitimate act is being discussed?
 
It is a legitimate issue for sure (though I believe voice calling is much more reliable in India than countries like US) , but lets not forget that the proposed solution of compensating users for dropped calls is not going to work. What ever they have to pay will be taken with double interest from the consumers by way of increasing tariff.

In fact, they will just use it as an excuse to increase tariff while blaming TRAI for it.
 
So they wont make the network better and they dont want the penalties of a bad network? lol
There needs to be a provision that makes sure that these fines cant be extracted from the consumers. So that these companies will invest more in improving the quality. It is literally a big task these days to make a call. Calls connect after 3-4 tries if you are lucky.

How do you even engineer a call drop? lol
 
Network quality is going down every day, I used to get full network from all the operators at my house, but now I need to go outside to even make a call. These operators should definitely be fined but in a way that people cant take advantage of the system.
 
This is like holding the Indian populace hostage to the telecom services. Because now they know that mobile has become a necessity and there is not that big competition as in other industries.

I think you can "engineer" call drop by going to a basement/area with low reception after the call got connected?
 
This all is done so that BSNL gets customer base back.

If TRAI implements any policy BSNL has to follow it.

If private telecos increase tarrif people will port to BSNL.
 
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