India’s Supreme Court has ruled that a directive introduced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which obliged cellcos to compensate customers for dropped calls was ‘unconstitutional and arbitrary’. The apex court sided with operators and struck down the directive, questioning the TRAI’s process of making the decision, the Economic Times reports.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate the regulations required providers to pay customers INR1 (USD0.015) for each dropped call to a maximum of INR3 per day. Industry bodies the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI) challenged the rules, claiming that the TRAI does not have the authority to impose such requirements and warning that it could cost operators upwards of INR30 billion per month. The industry bodies also argued that there was no mechanism for operators to separate the reasons for call drops.