TRAI's Regulations For Compensation To Consumers For Call Drops Upheld

Call drops can be simply explained as the service provider's ineptitude in maintaining a call between users and providing continued service once a call has been correctly established. Inadequate infrastructure, overloaded networks and fast paced expansion with poor investment by Telecom Service Providers ("TSPs") to match the expansion are some of the reasons behind this occurrence. With the Indian Prime Minister stepping in last year and demanding that a solution be found, the Delhi High Court has expressed agreement with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ("TRAI") for allowing compensation for call drops.

A.THE REGULATIONS

In our previous news update on the issue we had covered that TRAI had issued Telecom Consumers Protection (Ninth Amendment) Regulations ("Regulations") dated October 16, 2015, whereby it prescribed an imposition of a financial disincentive on TSPs for failure to meet quality of service benchmarks. Vide these Regulations,