Telecom operators in India heaved a sigh of huge relief on Wednesday with the Supreme Court striking down TRAI’s order to compensate subscribers for call drops, and said the real issues which have been constantly neglected, needed to be fixed now. Rajan S. Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), told the media we are very pleased with the Supreme Court verdict. It affirms what we have been saying all along. He was alluding to a host of factors being responsible for the menace of call drops. He added, now, let us move forward and fix the real issues – like having more cell towers, affordable spectrum and working with the local authorities to get the infrastructure in place.
The COAI and the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI), in a joint statement, said the operators will be committed and completely aligned with the TRAI’s concern to ensure customers enjoy the best experience on their respective networks. In its ruling, the Supreme Court bench of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman struck down the December 16, 2015 notification of the TRAI on call drops. In the process, it also set aside a Delhi High Court judgement that had upheld it earlier. The bench assigned reasons such as ‘Unreasonable, arbitrary and non-transparent’
The telecom operators in India had been maintaining that the watchdog’s order was populist as well as sought to penalize them to accommodate the customers, although there were several reasons for the same – and many not in their hands entirely. TRAI had directed all telecom operators to reimburse users with INR 1 for every call drop on their respective networks. With the SC Ruling, TRAI is in for a shock while Telecom Operators rejoice.
