Bad news for telcos; Trai to impose up to Rs 10 lakh for call drops

New norms make the measurement of call drop rate more granular

Looking to improve customer experience and end the issue of call drops, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai)  has announced revised quality of service (QoS) rules, providing for a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on mobile operators if they fail to meet the benchmarks.

The penalty, which stood at Rs 50,000 earlier, will increase to Rs 10 lakh in case of repeat violation of the benchmarks for two consecutive quarters.

Besides the penalty provision, Trai has also revised the methodology for assessing call drops as it feels that the earlier method of averaging the call drop rate was acting as a cover