SC asks telcos to assure call drops don't exceed 2 percent limit

The Supreme court has asked telecom operators to give an undertaking that they have not exceeded the two per cent threshold limit of call drops as mandated in the regulations. A bench headed by Justice Kurian Joseph yesterday also asked the cellular operator associations to inform the court whether any penalty was ever levied on them for call drops. 

Appearing for cellular operators, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, said the telecom operators have never crossed the two per cent limit of call drops. He said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendation has not been implemented yet and operators have not been charged for call



drops as of now. He said if the TRAI's recommendation is implemented the telecom operators will end up paying around 50,000 crore rupees to the consumers in a year. 

Cellular Operators Association of India, a body of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators have challenged the Delhi High Court order upholding the October 16, 2015 decision of the TRAI. The TRAI made it mandatory for cellular operators to pay consumers one rupee per call drop experienced on their networks, subject to a cap of Rs 3 a day. The High Court allowed telecom regulator to implement its decision from January 1 this year.