News
Telcos reportedly told to comply with TRAI’s controversial new regulation until at least 10 March.
India’s supreme court on Friday set 10 March as the date for deciding whether to uphold the dropped call compensation scheme, ordering operators to comply with the controversial new rule in the meantime.
According to a DNA report, the court said that while such rules are within the jurisdiction of the country’s telco regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), there is a need to ascertain whether telcos are at fault for call drop issues.
It comes after two lobby groups representing Indian mobile operators, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) – which backs GSM operators – and the CDMA-focused lobby group, the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI), challenged a Delhi high court order upholding the dropped call compensation scheme.
Introduced by the TRAI in October, the scheme requires mobile operators to pay customers 1 rupee per call dropped, up to a maximum of INR3 per day. Only the originating network, not the receiving network, is liable.
Operators argue that ordering them to pay compensation is beyond the TRAI’s scope, and that it punishes them for issues that are often beyond their control.
The high court earlier this week sided with the TRAI, prompting telcos to take their case to the supreme court.
