Penalise Telecom Operators, Compensate Users Over Call Drop: Congress

Delhi Congress on Tuesday demanded that telecom companies should be "heavily penalised" for high call drop rate in violation of Trai norms and users compensated as an effective deterrent in view of rise in such cases in the national capital.

Congress' Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken, along with the party's DPCC spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee met Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman R S Sharma on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum in this regard.

"It is our humble proposal that Trai may do a weekly revision and analysis of call drop rates of all mobile companies and heavy monthly penalty should be levied upon all operators which flout the Trai norms and the network wherein call drops are more than 2 percent... We urge Trai to impose mandatory compensation for all mobile users as per the percentage of call drops on their network. This will be an effective alternative and prompt remedy to the ailing mobile users," the memorandum said.

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Releasing findings of the audit of quality of service being provided by telecom operators in July, Trai had observed that most of the companies were not meeting the "benchmarks of network related parameters".

In Delhi, Reliance is having a call drop rate of 17.29 percent, Airtel 8.04 percent, Aircel 5.18 percent, Vodafone 4.28 percent and Idea 2.84 percent, it had said.

Congress also blamed the "lack of planning" on the part of the civic bodies in Delhi saying thousands of "illegal towers" have cropped up in residential areas, near school buildings and hospitals despite potential health risks.

"In view of the same, there is a strong desire for a National Tower policy... Trai must inquire in these irregularities on behalf of cell phone operators and appropriate penalty must be levied for the same," it said.