The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and mobile phone operators on Thursday decided to meet every two weeks, to sort out issues and concerns surrounding call drops.
In a meeting held on Thursday, the two sides had decided that the joint team of officials from TRAI and mobile phone companies would assess the test results on networks, planned in Delhi, Mumbai, and five other cities by December. The scope of the network tests is also likely to be expanded.
The TRAI had on Thursday convened a meeting of all mobile phone operators to take a status check on the call drop issue, which had even driven the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The regulator had recently proposed that operators pay Rs1 for every dropped call and capped it to three calls per day, beginning January 1, 2016.
The operators are vehemently opposed to the move saying the penal-cum-refund action could lead to misuse of the system and warned of a tariff increase. The operators have also said the regulator’s move could cost the companies anywhere between 7.4% and 36.8% of their revenue.
On Thursday, industry lobby Cellular Operators Association of India’s Director-General Rajan S. Mathews said he would wait for another two weeks for the regulator’s response and then would take a call whether to seek a legal remedy to the issue.