In the past one year, consumers, at various fora, have raised the issue of call drops, complaining that their experience of making voice calls has deteriorated. In order to assess the problem, TRAI, in the months of June/ July, 2015, conducted special drive-tests on certain routes of Mumbai and Delhi, in which, it was found that Call Drop Rates of most of the telecom service providers (TSPs) were higher than the permissible limit of ≤2% set by the Authority. TRAI has prescribed financial disincentives on TSPs for failure to meet the quality of service benchmarks (including call drop).

TRAI is of the view that the problem of call drops needs to be examined in its entirety and requires adoption of a multi-pronged approach. It is also considering to make it mandatory for the TSPs to make periodic disclosures about (i) their network capacities and (ii) the steps taken to optimize their networks to address the problem of call drops. On the lines of drive tests undertaken in the cities of Mumbai and Delhi in June/July, 2015, the Authority would be conducting such drive tests across various cities in the country. While several steps are being contemplated, the Authority cannot remain a silent spectator to the problem of call drops encountered by the consumers.

In this background, TRAI has issued a consultation paper and has solicited comments with appropriate justification on the following issues:

Q1: Do you agree that calling consumers should not be charged for a call that got dropped within five seconds? In addition, if the call gets dropped any time after five seconds, the last pulse of the call (minute/second) which got dropped, should not be charged. Please support your viewpoint with reasons along with the methodologies for implementation.

Q2: Do you agree that calling consumer should also be compensated for call drops by the access service providers? If yes, which of the following methods would be appropriate for compensating the consumers upon call drop?

(i) Credit of talk-time in minutes/ seconds
(ii) Credit of talk-time in monetary terms
(iii) Any other method you may like to suggest.

Please support your viewpoint with reasons along with the methodologies for implementation.

Q3: If the answer to the Q2 is in the affirmative, suggest conditions/limits, if any, which should be imposed upon the provision of crediting talk-time upon call drop and usage thereof.

Q4: Is there any other relevant issue which should be considered in the present consultation on the issue of call drops?

Through this forum of My Gov, TRAI invites the comments of stakeholders on the above issues by 21st September, 2015.

Consultation Paper on Call Drops

Press Release regarding Consultation Paper on Call Drops