Call drop compensation may not be implemented soon, says UBS
Posted on: 06/Nov/2015 10:22:02 AM
Brokerage firm UBS has said that the compensation that has been ordered by the Telecom Regulation Authority of India (TRAI) will not be implemented any time soon. TRAI had sent out communication making it mandatory for telecom operators to make up for call drops at the rate of Re. 1 per call dropped, upto 3 calls a day, starting Jan. 1, 2016.
UBS has released a report on the country`s mobile sector. In it, the firm has said, We expect operators to take the legal route and challenge the TRAI order. Given the practical difficulty in implementation as well as prevention of misuse, we do not think this regulation will be implemented in the near term... There have been a lot of investor concerns around TRAI`s proposal and implementation of this idea is likely to be fairly difficult... TRAI allows 2 per cent call drops in its quality of service (QoS) requirement and as per licence agreement, Indian mobile operators need not have 100 per cent geographical coverage. So, the compensation leaves room for customers to manipulate and collect maximum compensation of Rs 3 per day from operators. For example, a customer may walk into an elevator or inner part of a building knowing that the call is likely to get dropped... Battery going down and balance reaching zero in a pre-paid account can also result in call drops and the terminating network may be at fault, but the proposed regulation demands that originating operator pay Rs 1 per dropped call. Therefore, we expect operators to take the legal route and challenge the Trai order.
