With the Supreme Court annulling the call drop compensation regulation, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said telecom operators must "heed properly" his call to improve service quality.
"When they can expand telecom services to the nook and corner of the country, why can't they improve the quality?" Prasad asked soon after the court judgement.
The apex court today set aside the call drop penalty provision put in place by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which mandated mobile providers to compensate consumers Re 1 for every dropped call subject to a maximum of Rs 3 a day.
It called the regulation "ultra vires, arbitrary, unreasonable and non-transparent".
Commenting on the order, Prasad said, "As far the judgement is concerned, Trai regulation is under scrutiny. Therefore, Trai needs to take a call. As far as government obligation is concerned, we shall continue to persuade telecom operators to provide good service."
Sources, however, said all options are being explored, including for filing of a review petition.
Meanwhile, lawyer for telecom operators senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal called the regulation "a populist measure".
"Governments and ministers should not be populist when making decisions on behalf of the government. If you want to please people of India and want to become popular with them, do it in accordance with law," Sibal said.
Reacting to Sibal's comment, Prasad said: "Kapil Sibal has been a minister. Either he should become a big lawyer or talk like a leader. If he has said it as a lawyer, then it is unfortunate. If he wants to talk to me as a leader, I am ready with a good reply for him. I too have lots of questions for him. He has been a minister of this (telecom) department."
Invoking the social commitment card, he held that consumers expect good service from mobile operators, and as a minister, it is his responsibility to keep persuading and monitoring them to ensure they fix gaps in their network.
"I would expect, I repeat, I expect operators to heed my appeal properly because if Digital India is expanding, they will have enough scope for good business," he said.
Telecom operators' argument is resistance to install mobile towers by resident welfare associations and local authorities are main reasons for poor network that result in call drops.
Trai, however, has blamed the operators for investing less in infrastructure required for providing good quality of service.
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The minister put it on record that the government will take a decision to protect consumers' interest only after a detailed study of the judgement.
He said telecom operators have installed 90,000 mobile sites since July to improve network, but need to do more.
Reiterating his stand, MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar said Trai has lacked will and legal powers to enforce guidelines in the interest of consumers and called for a review of the Trai Act.
He also said Prasad recently indicated that the proposal to amend the Trai Act is under consideration.
Industry bodies Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India welcomed the judgement, saying the industry remains committed and completely aligned with the Trai's concerns to ensure customers enjoy the best experience.
"To this end, we are committed to working with Trai on focusing on the core issues that impede the delivery of quality of service such as availability of affordable spectrum and timely permissions for locating our cell towers," COAI and AUSPI said in a joint statement.
According to the industry bodies, more than 2 lakh sites are being installed in the last 15 months for 2G and 3G services across the country since January 1, 2015.
