Uninor to pay for call drops

Call Katega, Muft Call Milega' has been the tagline of Uninor, which is the only telecom operator in India to compensate its users for 'local' call drops. The telecom player now plans to extend the offer to outgoing STD calls and roaming across all networks.

The Indian arm of Norway's Telenor sends an SMS to a caller that one minute of extra talk time has been added in her account because a call dropped. The extra minute is valid for 24 hours.

Uninor's practice has prompted the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to ask the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to work out an incentive-disincentive structure for all telecom players over call drops.

Upanga Dutta, chief marketing officer, Telewings Communications Services (Uninor), told Business Standard that this initiative positioned Uninor as a customer-oriented company in a competitive environment. He, however, did not reveal how many minutes had been granted to subscribers till now.

"Our subscribers are compensated for dropped calls made made to networks of other telecom operators. It is not restricted to Uninor," Dutta added. He said the company has a mechanism in-built in their network which allows them to ascertain why the call dropped - due to network or not. This initiative is about creating customer delight, he said, adding that this unique project was conceptualised and executed by Uninor's internal technology teams.

Uninor offers services in Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and is expected to launch services in Assam later this year. It has a pre-paid user base of 47 million.

Calls drop because of spectrum constraints, inadequate cell towers and increasing subscribers. The rapid growth of smartphones and data traffic in cities has also led to congested networks.

The DoT recently ordered a nationwide audit on dropped calls. All metros and state capitals will be part of the survey.

The department has also asked all cellular telecom operators to submit by July 31 reports on action taken by them over dropped calls. The DoT said service providers should analyse reasons for dropped calls and take appropriate steps like installing more cell sites, adopting in-building solutions, and augmenting existing radio frequency resources.