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    Telecom companies move Supreme Court against call drop order, seek stay; hearing on Friday

    Synopsis

    Mathews added that the Trai regulation is impossible to implement, especially as it is not possible to accurately determine who is at fault for a dropped call.

    ET Bureau
    KOLKATA: Mobile operators Thursday challenged in the Supreme Court a Delhi High Court order which upheld a telecom regulator's regulation mandating telcos to compensate consumers Re 1 for every call dropped on their networks, subject to a cap of three a day, starting January 1, 2016.

    "The matter is listed for hearing sometime tomorrow (Friday)," CDMA lobby body Auspi secretary general Ashok Sud told ET.

    Rajan Mathews, Director General of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said that telecom operators have sought a stay on the call drop regulation and urged the apex court to bar the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) from implementing the regulation "through coercive measures."

    It has further urged the SC to stop Trai from implementing the regulation till the conclusion of the legal proceedings in the apex court.

    Both GSM lobby body COAI and Auspi have filed similar but separate petitions in the Supreme Court. Industry lobby body Auspi represents pure CDMA players such as Sistema Shyam Teleservices and dual-technology carriers like Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices.

    "We are challenging Delhi HC order as we believe Trai went beyond its jurisdiction in imposing penalties on telcos for call drops," Mathews said. COAI represents mobile phone operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular, Telenor and newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm.

    Mathews added that the Trai regulation is impossible to implement, especially as it is not possible to accurately determine who is at fault for a dropped call. This contention had been rejected by Trai previously.

    If telcos had agreed to comply with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) regulation, their collective monthly payouts towards compensation for call drops could range between Rs 830 crore and a massive Rs 4,500 crore based on consumer usage patterns, according to industry estimates. This, however, is much higher than the Rs 200 crore per quarter industry payout estimated by Trai.

    Monday's Delhi HC order was in response to several pleas challenging the Trai's October 16 regulation that directed mobile carriers to compensate customers for call drops. The Trai regulation had come amid growing public anger against the call drops menace.


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