While mobile users continued to struggle with call drops, Telecom regulator Trai that is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday said current norms are not effective in providing any relief to consumers. Trai also said that, they would be requiring around two weeks time to finalize their position, which will be after the Supreme Court nullified the penalty provision. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had introduced new rules where they had made it compulsory for telecom operators to pay Re 1 for each dropped call, subject to maximum Rs 3 per day. But as the telecom operators appealed against the regulatory diktat, the provision was declared void by the Supreme Court.
In an interview, R S Sharma the Trai Chairman said we are reviewing the situation internally as to what should be the way forward. May be in couple of weeks we should be able to come out with the position as to what can be done.He said the current norms are not competent to provide the much needed relief to telecom consumers. He further added that Trai had attempted by way of mental apprehension to compensate the consumers in cases of call drops. We are all aware that the telecom service providers had challenged the regulation before the Honorable High Court of Delhi, where the Regulation was upheld. He further said that, however we lost out in the Honorable Supreme Court. I think we have to find some solution to this situation. I do not have any solution at this moment.
Mr Sharma said that unlike other sectors, an average grievance of telecom consumers has certain peculiarities. This is because the monetory value in most of the grievances is very small that is just INR 10 to 20 while the consumer base for mobile services in India is very large. He added, hence an average consumer is not able to approach courts because the value is very low and even filing an affidavit will be more than the value of the complaint. Also it does not help the consumers to go to Trai as they d not entertain individual complaints and even if they receive one they just pass it on to the concerned TSP.
