The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has claimed that service providers have never gone past the 2% call drop threshold limit imposed by TRAI. It made the declaration during the ongoing Supreme Court battle against the latter’s penalty scheme.
The assertion is in direct contrast to TRAI’s own data. To recall, it had conducted a call drop test drive across India a few months ago and found that most telecom operators had failed its service quality tests. Network brands later disputed these findings, stating that its own evaluations had given out different results.
As per PTI, COAI told the Supreme Court that only one service provider has ever been penalized for call drops since 2009. While there were other companies which were handed over show cause notices, the reasons given for crossing the limit were accepted. As a result, the industry body thinks TRAI can’t adopt a policy of zero tolerance for the issue since brands can’t be held entirely responsible for the problem.
Also See: TRAI to comply with Supreme Court order on call drops
Kapil Sibal, the senior advocate for COAI, went on to call TRAI’s regulations ultra vires and arbitrary. Meanwhile, TRAI is still deliberating on whether it should amend its call drop penalty scheme. The Supreme Court had asked it to consider changing its stand given the fact that it had overlooked some vital data on the matter when composing the rules.
The Supreme Court will next hear the case on April 5. Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha plans to make TRAI’s decision known to the bench during the course of the hearing.