Telecom companies can't be blamed or fined for call drops: COAI

NEW DELHI: The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Thursday told the Supreme Court that service providers could not be blamed or penalised for call drops, which happened for various reasons, including inferior quality of phones purchased by customers from grey markets.

COAI's counsel Kapil Sibal told a bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman that the problem of call drops was a universal phenomenon and there was no country in the world with zero call drops. He said no country except Colombia penalised telecom companies for the problem. He added that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's decision making firms liable to pay compensation to consumers was illegal and unconstitutional. There can be no 'zero tolerance' regime for call drops based on the presumption that all calls made by the customer must get connected. It is dependent on the location, buildings around it and the strength of radio signal. I can't have control over it and I cannot be penalised for no fault of mine," Kapil Sibal, counsel for Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) told the Supreme Court on Thursday.

The other factor for call drops was the strength of electromagnetic radiation from towers, the COAI said. "Our standards of electromagnetic radiation from the towers are the lowest in the world," it said.

Stung by Trai's ruling that operators would be penalized for call drops, the COAI argued that licence conditions provided for a maximum of 2% call drops, a global standard, and no telecom company had ever crossed that limit.

"A study by Trai said 36% of call drops were because of inferior quality instruments the customers purchase from grey markets," Sibal said.

When the bench asked under what circumstances an operator coud be held liable for call drops, Sibal said, "It is impossible to relate a call drop to service provider."