The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued the ninth amendment to the Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations, 2012 mandating operators to provide compensation to consumers for call drops, with effect from January 1, 2016.

Under the compensation mechanism, service providers would have to credit Re 1 in the account of the calling consumer for every dropped call. However, such credit will be limited to three dropped calls in a day. Operators would also be required to send a message to the consumer within four hours of the dropped call with regards to the amount credited in his/her account. In the case of post paid consumers, details have to be provided in the next bill.

TRAI is of the view that this regime will be able to provide relief to the consumers to some extent while induce operators to improve quality of service. The regulator will also monitor the implementation of this compensation regime and undertake a review in the next six months, if required.