Delhi HC Upholds TRAI’s Ruling of Compensation for Call Drops

A division bench of Delhi HC has ordered that telecom-operators to compensate subscribers for first 3 call drops.

Delhi HC upheld TRAI’s decision to impose a compensation for call drop. (Photo: Reuters)

The Delhi High Court, on Monday, upheld the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) order on call drops. The TRAI order makes it mandatory for cellular operators to compensate subscribers for call drops.

A division bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath ordered that telecom operators would have to compensate subscribers for first three call drops.

On 16 October 2015, TRAI had announced the compensation policy under which mobile users get Re 1 paid for every dropped call, restricted on three per day.

The regulation was to come into effect starting 1 January 2016 and was opposed by telecom operators.

TRAI had said that the policy was made after consumers encountered cases of call drops regularly. In the first quarter of 2015, 200 crore out of about 25,000 crore outgoing calls were dropped.

This is 0.77 percent of all calls made, the TRAI had told the court. The regulator also added that service provider made about Rs 36,781 crore during the period, which includes the income from dropped calls.

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